Nov. 2, 2021: overcast skies, wind SW 5MPH, temp 53F; sunset time 5:25PM

Out on Crow Patrol along Merrimack Street with first stops around the south end of the Casey Bridge area. Next stop was atop the McGovern parking garage as the Crows assembled on the far roof, at the west end. In this image we tally over just 6oo Crows mulling around on the roof.

Moved on to South Canal Street with Crows gathering on roof top edges, utility wires, and on the ground along South Canal and in the extended truck deport area. The roof top along the east side of the red brick CubeSmart building attracted almost 90 well spaced Crows, with almost all facing into the wind.

As always, there was great flight action and vocalizations from large numbers of both American and Fish Crows. The image below shows one of the many flight bursts towards the overnight roost, with 92 Crows in flight, and with other many Crows already perched below on the substation transformers, busbars, and switch gears.

As we capture and share more aerial images, we are able to provide new and interesting views of the proximate staging areas. This overhead view of one of rooftops shows over 650 Crows mulling around about 30 minutes after sunset time, and just before heading off to the nearby overnight roost. It is always fascinating to see how they allow for uniform spacing between each other.

The last vantage point for the night was from the north side of the Merrimack River from the Mill240 park. This image shows over 800 Crows Crows perched and tightly packed in the upper trees along the south side of the river. This location is mostly behind the National Grid substation about one hour and twenty minutes after sunset time.

Note on counts/estimates: we are now using much improved methods for counting the large number of Crows while streaming, staging and in the roost. For all images, we use both a modified open source software program, as well as a hand count approach to carefully document our observations and to increase reliability and accuracy of the presented numbers. 

THE OFFICIAL 2020 NATIONAL AUDUBON CHRISTMAS BIRD COUNT (CBC) ESTIMATE FOR THIS CROW ROOST: 15,200

Check out the newly launched Crow Patrol Podcast: wintercrowroost.com/podcast/

Photo gear used for this outing:

Canon EOS 80D with Canon EF-S 18-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS 

Canon EOS 80D with Canon EF-S 18-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS (Infrared)

Canon 1DX MK II with Canon EF Telephoto Zoom 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM

ATN BinoX 4K Smart HD Binoculars with photo/video

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Blog post and photos by Craig Gibson, 2021 Crow Patrol, Lawrence, MA