Lawrence Crow Patrol 2018-2019 Swan Song – April 16, 2019
On Tuesday, April 16th Bob and I went on our last crow patrol trip of the 2018-2019 season. What a delight to end on such a high note.
Imagine, after leaving their roost site along the Merrimack River beside New Balance on January 23rd, they returned. For almost three months they had staged along the river to the west of the Rt. 28 Bridge (Broadway St.) and staged and roosted innumerable places, but finally they returned to the mother lode.
Our goal all winter was to document the full staging and roosting process and to compare it to the previous year. In the 2017-2018 Lawrence winter crow season (Oct to April) we had visited 100 nights and documented their staging and roosting patterns. This winter season we have been out about 80 nights at 3+ hours per night again recording the pattern.
On Tuesday night, we had gone in search of them an hour before (6:27 pm) sunset (7:27 pm that night) in order to record the full staging and roosting behavior. The search began in the office park area off Andover St. on Industrial Way. We found about 500 birds milling around at Simpson’s mainly on the roof. That night some began to peel off behind the Affinity building heading east up the river early. We left earlier than usual in order to see them from the boathouse. Ah, yes there they were slowly trickling by on the north side of the river as far as we could see. On to the Riverside State Park, again a few moving further east.
Bob ventured the thought “I think they are going back to the old roost”. Off again we went and on Merrimack St. just west of the New Balance Factory Building - back in the old truck depot on the ground and on the roof of the storage building to the west of it, WE FOUND THEM IN THEIR FINAL STAGING AREA. Some swirled around and landed on the National Grid building to the east.
I offered “Lets go and watch them going into the roost for old times sake” so off to the New Balance Parking Lot’s far northwestern corner facing that near corner of the building with a sunset lit sky over the river. Once there, we saw they had a new pattern as they all flew across the river and landed on the roof and upper railing of the old brick mill on the northside of the river. You just sit there and ask yourself “what are they up to tonight”. Well, eventually just before a half hour after sunset, they slowly a few at a time flew back over the river and started to land in the line of silver maples on the south side of the river just like they had done months earlier.
There were 500 that night versus the 27,000 back in January - probably American Crows not two years old (when they are old enough to breed) and those not acting as helpers at the nest of their parents and many Fish Crows (are these still going to nest? Birds of North America says they can nest two months after American Crows. Or are they too young?).
Well, we could go home knowing that the trickle of birds had returned to the roost. Why? Will I ever know? Will I ever know what percent were migrants? How far they strayed during the day? These are important research questions that a tracking project can help us answer. Stay tuned as we will need your ideas and assistance.
I have truly enjoyed sharing our adventures with you. Thanks for reading my lengthy tales. I appreciated your many comments and observations.
Until next fall.
Dana
danafox@comcast.net
North Andover, MA
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