Crow roost Elliot Park

Last night we went to Elliot Park near downtown Minneapolis to see the crow roost. It was bitterly cold, and my own photos and my video did not come out, but this clip gives an idea of what it was like.
This clip from the Nature documentary has the director's commentary, and some amazing infrared footage1

What do crows say to each other early in the morning?

It's that time of year again, when viewing the crows becomes a part of my day. This afternoon, I was driving in south Minneapolis at about 4 when I drove under the crows' flight stream north. They wing in from the south, heading toward their night roosts in the cemetery on Cedar and Lake, to the trees of Loring Park, probably to other sites by the river. Thousands of them gather, but they fly overhead one by one, in a non-ending stream. My friend said they were creepy, but I love them. Who would clean up the dead squirrels in the road, if not for the crows?
Here's a glimpse of what it looks their daily return to the roost looks like:

And here's a great video of them descending on Loring Park as the sun goes down:

Birdchick (Sharon Stiteler) has posted about this enormous roost in Loring Park and even organized a viewing "Birds and Beers" party at one of the bars on the park last winter. This is something I want to do this year! Once, I walked through the park after dusk and the trees were filled with their rustling murmer.

I recently came across this amazing post by artist and blogger Coco Mault, in which she shares a recording she made very early one morning of the crows that roost near her home, before they flew away for the day. I have listened to it several times now. It's so complex and beautiful.

Morning Crow Sounds by Mault, Coco

Amazing crow video

via Birdchick's blog, here is a video clip taken this Sunday at Loring Park in Minneapolis, of the tens of thousands of crows that fly in to roost their every night in the winter. One of my daily joys is seeing the crows fly overhead toward their roost, so this footage taken by TwinCitiesNaturalist is thrilling. I have to go see it in person some time soon! I highly recommend clicking on the full screen view icon in the lower right hand corner of the video to get the full effect.

Crows in Minneapolis

It's winter, and that means the return of thousands of crows to their urban roosts in Minneapolis. Crows have started to roost in great numbers in cities in the last several decades, in part because it gives them some extra protection from their major predator, great horned owls. It may be that they are breeding in the suburbs, where the habitat is ideal for them, with the unmated youngsters flocking to the urban areas. One year, they roosted near the crook of 35W and 94, which made them highly visible at about the time a lot of people were driving home from work. Another year, their roost was near the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, and another was spotted at Wirth Park. I remember the year they chose Loring Park as their nighttime roost; walking at night with a friend under the trees chock full of roosting crows, we could hear a soft rustle-murmer, as if the trees were alive.

I'm not sure how many roosts there are this year, or where the biggest ones are, but I've seen crows flying in to congregate at the cemetery on Cedar and Lake around sundown (which has been about 4:30-5!) and so has another local biology observer. They haven't become a nuisance in the Twin Cities, as far as I know, the way they have in some other areas, probably because we have large stands of bare trees in areas like parks, by the river, etc, so their droppings are not bothering people the way they do in some smaller cities. I have also noticed that several trees on our block are serving as a staging area; smaller groups of about 20-30 crows show up at around 4, and fly and yak between a few trees, as they congregate before heading for the big communal roost.

Mark Westerfeld has created Crows.net Project, collecting information from amateur observers, like these stories of small groups of crows folks observe while walking their dogs. Crows are smart and adaptable, like coyotes: opportunistic, scavengers, and very entertaining.

Is this not the most gorgeous painting of a crow roost by Chicago artist Diana Sudyka?

Some great photos on Flickr include this series near Chicago Ave (not far from the Lake street area).