Imagine, after well over 115 nights observing the Lawrence MA winter Crow Roost (90+ last winter and already 25+ this winter we still are being taught more by these crows.
It all started Sunday the 10th night. We had been tied up for a few nights preparing for a major event in our holiday season and had had to miss the evening show since early last week.
Amazingly, early Sunday afternoon, Bob asked if I wanted to go see the crows. So off we went to Lawrence an hour before sunset. We chose to drive – no, not we – Bob chose and I drove! – looking for staging areas. We finally retuned closer to sunset to Merrimack St. near the truck depot on So. Canal St and saw many crow to the south around the roof tops. The light was dropping as I drove to So. Union St. and turned right (south) heading over the railroad bridge towards Market St. Suddenly, my phone rang. It was Craig Gibson, but it was Sunday and he usually was not in the city on that day and he and his wife had left our house only hours earlier the night before. He chimes up “I can see you right below me”. What a surprise! He can see me and he is there. He was indeed in the city on top of the parking garage looking down on me driving by! He had taken a photographer friend over to shoot pictures of the crows and they were looking west down on the roof tops at thousands of crows. The crows were staging that night on the roofs south of Merrimack St. We turned back and parked at the entrance of So. Canal St. looking west and saw an amazing sight – thousands of crows lifting off the one story roofs in a continuous stream and heading around the New Balance Factory into the roost – the thin line of trees along the river. Bob later took Sandy, the photographer over to the Duck Bridge and let her see them pouring into the leafless trees.
Well, last night I wanted to watch the crows from Craig’s perch. It was a perfect afternoon – sunny not a cloud in the sky and low wind. We live about five minutes south of the roost and as we made our way over local streets, we could see crows passing from west to east over us. Why? Hard to figure out. We are getting good at the “what” but are grasping for straws on the “why”. We drove to the east on Merrimack St. and could see crows to the south in the treetops. None along the river so on to the Parking Garage located on the south corner of Merrimack St. and So. Union. You enter it off Merrimack St. on the far eastern side. It has about seven stories and was the best $4 we ever spent.
We went up to the open top and parked on the western side looking into the setting sun – the only ones there. At first, I focused on the crows coming in from the west and southwest. Bob went over to the southeastern corner to watch that staging area we had just seen. The crows I was watching flew just to the south of us over to that group to the east? Why? We had never observed that before. The sun was setting and the sky was aglow. Oh, and AGAIN Craig appeared briefly in a white car briefly as he head off to a night meeting. Well, it was after sunset when the real show started. Later than usual. As we stood at the western side of the garage, suddenly, a river of crows started and for twenty minutes as day gave way to night, the crows streamed in – over us, over the old brick mill building to the north of us - thousands of crows and they dropped onto the roofs below us staging in a dense mass of black blobs on a dark roof. We could see looking down So. Union some coming from the east up the river and circling around the New Balance Building. I saw one large flock from the northwest. It was dramatic looking west at the sky line punctuated by the tall smoke stacks of the old mills, many Catholic Churches, and the beautiful clock tower over New Balance seeing thousands of crows peppering the sky. Last night we did not wait until they lifted off and went into the roost but it was already 45 minutes after sunset.
I commend that you too go to the parking garage (you can just walk in and go up an elevator if you wish). Ideally, choose a sunny afternoon and get there an hour before sunset. Getting out of the garage is a bit tricky – or it was for us. You have to scan your ticket. Ours wouldn’t scan and Bob went over to the train ticket booth and paid and after trying to scan the receipt we got out by pressing a help button.
In the final minutes of the pre-dawn light, I just heard a couple of times the “Ahwing” of my wintering Barred Owl. He must be sitting in our line of hemlock trees. Pays to get up early!!!
Enjoy and do plan to come to see the show.
Dana
Dana Duxbury-Fox
North Andover, MA
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