Monday, February 9, 2009

Crows Galore

I thought I would try to upload a short, and I mean short, video of the murder of crows that gather in the trees across the street from my house. The noise they make as they start to come in and jockey for roosting position is astounding. This is but a small amount of them as I scared them from their roost as I walked into the grove of trees. Not the greatest time of day to try to film them but they come in at dusk and leave before dawn. I just wonder where they all come from. My DB estimated that there were 400 in this roost. I think that was a conservative estimate.

This may be the last video I ever upload. Whew, it took a l-o-n-g time to load. I just can't get over the ruckus they make coming and going.

28 comments:

  1. Those are loud. I'm thinking Alfred Hitchcock would have loved that film footage for his movie, "The Birds".

    Next time, try setting up an account on YouTube and uploading there. It is faster and doesn't take up storage on your blog. Then you can embed a link to the video on your post.

    Carol, May Dreams Gardens

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  2. I am sooo tired right now, Lisa--I read your first line and thought you were going to show us crows being killed, heaven forbid:) Wonder whoever came up with that name for a group of crows? Anyway, I've never seen that many crows in one place before! Starlings, yes, but not crows.

    I'll have to remember Carol's tip if I include a video again some time; no wonder so many people use youtube videos.

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  3. Dear Lisa,
    Oh my godness that is a huge group of crows. I can just imagine how noisy it is. I wonder why they choose those trees for their roost?
    Thank you for the video. I do know how long all these "shows" take to produce and to upload. Very nice of you to take us to the crows.
    Sherry

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  4. Thanks for the tip Carol. I will see about going through You Tube if I ever do such a thing again.

    Rose, I don't know who came up with the name "murder" for a group of crows. It is an old saying as are most names for groups of different birds.

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  5. How neat. at first they were hard to see then boom!

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  6. Wow, you captured that perfectly! Even coming in for a close-up. I don't do video's so am very impressed and can't even relate to the long time problem.

    I have seen and heard this very thing many times before. Nature is so amazing!

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  7. Goodness, what an impressive lot of crows!

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  8. It is amazing to watch the crows gather! Funny how they pick one spot as "the" spot. And the noise!

    You can upload to You Tube but you can also export video for web streaming ... it reduces the size and takes a LOT less time to load. I learned the hard way ... like you.

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  9. P.S. ... your new posts haven't been coming up on bloglines ... now today 7 came at once. So I've been behind! Sometimes, for some people bloglines works great but I've had a few people lately ... so it is BIG catch up time.

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  10. Great stuff Lisa! Being able to see and hear the action from a different part of the world is always great - even if we do have crows here :-D

    Yes, as Carol suggests you can use YouTube but there are a few others too - Google, BlipTV and Vimeo. Quality varies a little between each and upload times vary. It would be very nice to 'hear' from your birding trips every now and again :-D

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  11. Hi Lisa....they are natures survivors.....we have a rookery near our house.....the noise sometimes would wake the dead, so I know exactly what you mean.....

    I do actually enjoy the sound of them going home to roost.....

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  12. I couldn't get the video to run for me Lisa. I know they can be so very loud.

    I need to check my feeds again, as I've not been getting notification of new posts from Greenbow for some reason.

    Have a wonderful day!

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  13. Lisa, they sound like that here. I love that they're called a murder of crows. Just sounds so ominous. I tried to upload a video once, and after 24 hours gave up. Kudos to you.~~Dee

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  14. I love the phrase~~murder of crows. I read that crows like to taunt owls while they are trying to sleep and raise young....crows being one of the tasty meals owls prefer...This is their way of getting back at the owl! You can hear how effective it could be!

    gail

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  15. It makes me think of the movie The Birds - Don't turn your back on those crows!

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  16. Not my favorite birds but they are super smart. I'm grateful they don't roost near my house.
    Marnie

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  17. Great video and I love seeing the crows! I use blip.tv for my videos! But my internet is slow and I have a hard time just because . . . or I would upload more videos

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  18. Lisa believe this.. here we have NO crows they were wiped out a few summers ago with "West Nile Virus"..
    perhaps they all flew to your world!

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  19. Beautiful crows!
    Nature is the best!!!

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  20. Isn't that amazing!
    They have some pretty interesting vocalization besides just "caw-caw." I have a couple that perch in the tree outside the bedroom window and call to each other and I enjoy listening to them.

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  21. Hey Lisa, I'm getting a message saying the video isn't available, but I still think it's great you got it. I looked up a 'murder' and it says, "This name came about because a group of crows will sometimes kill a dying crow." Lovely image, isn't it?!

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  22. I am sorry that some of you can't get the video to work for you. I am not computer literate enough to even advise you to what goes on. It is curious that some can get it to go and some can't.

    I won't do anything so complicated for your next visit.

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  23. I love your crow video, Lisa. A murder of crows does sound like something straight out of Alfred Hitchcock's movie, "The Birds". Doesn't it make you wonder how the name originated?
    We have a few around, but nothing like your huge number. They sure are noisy!

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  24. We hate crows. We scare them away with flashlights as much as we can because they make a hideous mess on the sidewalk as well as the horrible sound.

    Just not a bird I can be too tolerant of--your video is great because it evokes all those feelings!

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  25. Lisa, Carol's advice is sound. I need to remember it, too! Otherwise, I keep my videos to about 20 seconds in length.

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  26. Wow!! That video was amazing! Thank you!

    I once heard of a crow roost in
    Fort Cobb, Oklahoma ...in the 1970's they had over 2 million in the roost!

    True crow story... When my son was little, he came into the house crying that a crow stole his "Silver Surfer" action figure. I didn't believe him, and thought that he has lost it.

    A few years later, my husband was cleaning out the gutters, and noticed a shiny object in a nest in a tree...it was the SS!

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  27. How did I miss this Crow post and cool video? Thanks for taking the trouble, Lisa - it's been ten years since I saw and heard that sight. We used to have rival gangs of crows take over the two biggest trees in the neighborhood...luckily neither of those trees were on our lot!

    Down here it's huge grackles with big tail feathers. I'm not sure if the ones in my Ash tree are Great-tailed Grackles or Boat-tailed grackles and don't want to stand underneath them with the guide book in hand trying to measure and decide.

    Annie at the Transplantable Rose

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