Subject: [Tweeters] River of crows
Date: Dec 20 17:06:07 2012
From: Joyelle Neubauer - joyelleneubauer at comcast.net


There appears to be a very similar "river of crows" in the south end flying
south over South Center and the Costco. I don't know their final
destination but there are a lot of them all heading south perhaps following
the Green River. Does anyone know where they end up?



Joy Neubauer

Burien



From: tweeters-bounces at mailman1.u.washington.edu
[mailto:tweeters-bounces at mailman1.u.washington.edu] On Behalf Of
lsr at ramoslink.info
Sent: Thursday, December 20, 2012 3:12 PM
To: Tweeters
Subject: Re: [Tweeters] River of crows



Last year, the river of crows followed a pretty direct route from the
Seattle neighborhoods, consolidating into a pretty narrow band by the time
they reached the mouth of the slough in Kenmore. They mostly followed
Bothell Way from that point until the major curve in the road just beyond
the golf course. From there, they followed the slough, then 'climbed' the
hill above the UW Bothell campus, finally reaching the wetlands. During this
trajectory, the masses of crows would stage in different areas, in huge
numbers. One major staging area encompassed the strip of businesses around
the 68th and Bothell Way intersection. Every square meter of roof space had
at least one crow; the spectacle could stop traffic, both auto and
pedestrian. When the river continued on its journey eastward, other staging
areas included the trees along the slough just east of Bothell Landing, the
hill to the south of the Bothell post office, then the lawns near the east
parking lot of the campus. Finally, as dusk arrived, the birds began
settling into the trees in the wetlands.

This year, the path of the river has meandered a bit. Now, instead of
following the arterial (for cars, that is), they cross Bothell way heading
north into Kenmore, then loop back across the slough to line the trees along
Riverside Drive in Bothell, which parallels the slough, for one of the
staging areas. The power lines are the roosting stops here, with birds
spaced evenly, about a wing's width apart, for about a half mile. From
there, the river follows mostly the same path as last year, with the last
staging area covering a large portion of the campus.

>From my office window overlooking the slough and 522, I can hear the caws
before I notice that the birds have started to arrive. That is the time to
take a little stroll to the other side of the building where I can look out
at the parking area and see literally hundreds of crows lining every tree
and post in sight. Fortunately, I leave work after dusk so the river has by
that time moved on. Unfortunately, my office will be moving to a new
location next month so I will no longer be able to watch the show. The new
location is just to the east of the campus, however, so maybe there will be
more opportunity for crow-watching.

Scott Ramos
Seattle

P.S. Last year, a made a couple of videos that are still relevant:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ox9X-70VgV0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D6iue-c9fxc