Winter Crows

     We have three species of the crow family here in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, the occasional raven, nesting fish crows and two different populations of American crows.  Ravens are the largest members, and hawk-like with wedged tails.  Fish crows' cawing is nasal.  And we have scattered pairs of American crows that nest in tall trees in local woodlots, farmland and suburban areas.  But starting by late October each year, we have tens of thousands of American crows down from the forests of Canada, New England and other northern states of eastern North America that will winter locally.  These crows are a little larger than our local breeding crows and they seem to congregate into one big flock overnight. 
     For several years, at least up to the winter of 2015-2015, these crows that nest farther north have settled for each winter night in trees surrounding Park City, a shopping mall outside Lancaster City.
I went to Park City one late afternoon in the middle of November to see if they were still settling for the night there.  They were, by the thousands, as usual!  At sunset, I could see thousands of them already perched in trees around the mall and loose, fast-moving sheets more of them coming into the area from every direction.  These, too, landed on the same trees.  The calling of these large, black birds was incessant as always.  Sometimes, crows in a clump of trees would rise noisily into the air, circle a bit, then settle on the trees again.  Meanwhile, human visitors of the mall, in their cars,
 seemed as numerous as the crows above them.  Finally, when there was only a faint glow of sunset in the western sky, the incoming flow of crows stopped.  they were in for the night, but still noisy, as they probably are every night.
     The parade of cars around the mall, people walking in the parking lots and the numerous outdoor lights didn't bother the crows in the least.  Apparently, they are used to all that disturbance.  And the people didn't seem to notice the crows, maybe because those large, black birds have been there for years and the people are used to them. 
     These crows demonstrate how adaptable and tolerant some species of life can be.  And they may benefit from such human-made conditions because their roosts might be a few degrees warmer because of the buildings, cars and outdoor lights.  And, maybe, no great horned owls would be in such a habitat as Park City to grab crows off their nightly perches each night.  But, on the other hand, horned owls are adaptable, too, and might live among the trees around that shopping mall, too.   
     At dawn each day, these thousands of crows leave their overnight roosts like a dam break and long rivers of them scatter in all directions to fields and suburbs where they feed on corn kernels and invertebrates on fields, acorns on lawns, road kills, edible refuse on parking lots and in dumpsters, and anything else edible, wherever they find it. 
     But by the middle of each winter afternoon, streams of crows become rivers, then great waves as the birds make their way back to Park City for the night.  I remember seeing a river of crows passing over the environmental center in Lancaster County Central Park by mid-afternoon each winter day.  That river of crows, that was forever cawing, would eddy in trees along the Conestoga River in Central Park before going on to Park City. 
     These wintering crows by the hundreds can be seen here and there on corn fields scattered around the county.  Then we can see how big and sleek they are as they walk about picking up grain, seeds and invertebrates.  They are handsome birds, made all the more intriguing by knowing where they had spent the summer raising young. 
     But by early to mid-March, these northern crows leave our area and migrate north to their breeding territories.  I am always sorry to see them go because I enjoy experiencing these tough, adaptable birds while they are here.