Re: [cayugabirds-l] Crows vs TVs

2015-11-12 Thread AB Clark 
Concerted attacks (vs a couple of young crows harrassing vultures) is unusual!  
 But we are now very interested in where roosts are actually occuring!  Our 
studies of roosts and Nitrogen cycling are ongoing.

You are right, the “Migrants” did arrive…about 10 days ago.  The roost in 
Auburn went from 0 to 20K within days; there is a flock regularly gathering 
around noon at Munson Rd x 34 area and moving field to field…last time I could 
count, I know there were over 800 and I certainly couldn’t see all the fields 
they were using.  

Our local crows have been much more circumspect.  Except for a very regular 
flock of fish crows, they are using the Compost site very little, although our 
two radio-tagged crows are always in the general vicinity of Stevenson x Turkey 
Hill, And a few times in last 3 weeks,  there has been a flock of 100-200 with 
a few tagged birds up on Mt Pleasant, near Mineah.  Before Migrant Arrival, I 
had a flock of about 200 with tagged locals near Munson Rd along 34, but not 
since.  (Don’t mix with the winter people??)

Last Sunday, I had one very large, completely no-tags flock of 500-800 birds at 
the Compost once,  swirling confusedly as it got toward dusk, as if they were 
uncertain where to go.  I think they finally went off toward downtown, maybe 
the Ithaca College area.

So I would be much interested to know about any large foraging or roosting 
aggregations, or even where early morning crows seem to be coming from.

cheers,

Anne

> On Nov 12, 2015, at 11:51 AM, Chris R. Pelkie  
> wrote:
> 
> I mentioned seeing my first of season ‘big’ crow assemblage at the CBC 
> meeting last week, of about 100 American Crows doing small wheelies in a 
> large group swirling over my house (I first thought it was gulls, in fact).
> 
> Over the last week, I’ve seen similar numbers streaming over at dusk, 
> probably from Lansing corn fields to Ithaca/Northeast area.
> 
> This morning, I had a bird-a-palooza at 645AM while walking the dog. As I 
> stepped out, the cawing was loud, continuous, and numerous. Looking up in 
> early dawn against gray overcast, I estimated 200 AMCRs swirling and 
> attacking about 16 Turkey Vultures (this is unusual, of course).
> The TVs were clearly not enjoying this at all, and probably saying “Mellow 
> out, dudes! What’s up with this?”. But crows were hitting the TVs and small 
> groups chasing individual TVs around in a giant swirling mass of black wings.
> The illusion of a WWII bomber-fighter sky battle came to mind.
> 
> I suspect that the crows were roosting in the same trees around Asbury 
> Cemetery as the TVs have used for several years, and both groups woke up 
> about the same time, probably when a near-sighted crow with a short temper 
> jumped the first TV by accident thinking it was one of those ‘other’ raptors 
> it should be attacking, then the cascade began of more crows joining in and 
> more TVs freaking out and going from tree to sky only to be attacked 
> themselves. Just my hypothesis.
> 
> ChrisP
> __
>  
> Chris Pelkie
> Information/Data Manager; IT Support
> Bioacoustics Research Program
> Cornell Lab of Ornithology
> 159 Sapsucker Woods Road
> Ithaca, NY 14850
> 
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[cayugabirds-l] Crows vs TVs

2015-11-12 Thread Chris R. Pelkie 
I mentioned seeing my first of season ‘big’ crow assemblage at the CBC meeting 
last week, of about 100 American Crows doing small wheelies in a large group 
swirling over my house (I first thought it was gulls, in fact).

Over the last week, I’ve seen similar numbers streaming over at dusk, probably 
from Lansing corn fields to Ithaca/Northeast area.

This morning, I had a bird-a-palooza at 645AM while walking the dog. As I 
stepped out, the cawing was loud, continuous, and numerous. Looking up in early 
dawn against gray overcast, I estimated 200 AMCRs swirling and attacking about 
16 Turkey Vultures (this is unusual, of course).
The TVs were clearly not enjoying this at all, and probably saying “Mellow out, 
dudes! What’s up with this?”. But crows were hitting the TVs and small groups 
chasing individual TVs around in a giant swirling mass of black wings.
The illusion of a WWII bomber-fighter sky battle came to mind.

I suspect that the crows were roosting in the same trees around Asbury Cemetery 
as the TVs have used for several years, and both groups woke up about the same 
time, probably when a near-sighted crow with a short temper jumped the first TV 
by accident thinking it was one of those ‘other’ raptors it should be 
attacking, then the cascade began of more crows joining in and more TVs 
freaking out and going from tree to sky only to be attacked themselves. Just my 
hypothesis.

ChrisP
__

Chris Pelkie
Information/Data Manager; IT Support
Bioacoustics Research Program
Cornell Lab of Ornithology
159 Sapsucker Woods Road
Ithaca, NY 14850


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