FJ #3

Date: 03/06/2021
Start Time: 3:00
End Time: 4:30
Location: Elmwood Cemetery
Weather: 23 degrees F, eastern wind of around 8 mph, no precipitation. Partly cloudy day, with some sunshine until ~4:00.
Habitat: Fairly open, with several large and very large trees, and lots of gravestones. There's generally a mix of deciduous and coniferous trees, with perhaps a few more coniferous trees than deciduous. The cemetery is in the old north end, and so there's a fair bit of traffic on the North St side of the cemetery, but it gets quieter the further down Elmwood Ave you go.

There was a murder of at least 40 crows perching in some of the bare deciduous trees and more on the ground. Crowding together on the branches could definitely be helping the crows to maintain some body heat. The crows on the ground were using their sturdy beaks to try to break up the ice on the ground that covered seeds and other food scraps. One crow succeeded in this, and then that opening in the ice got bigger very quickly as other crows came by to peck and try to eat some seeds.
This also happened in the parking lot nearby, but the crow looked to be pecking through the ice in order to reach frozen bread--it looked like a McDonald's burger bun that someone dropped before it froze to the ground.
I didn't see any dead snags in the cemetery, but that makes sense as its a semi-cultivated space. I did notice that some crows were relaxing of a sorts in the sun--they had their wings a little stretched out, and maybe were capturing heat with the black of their feathers. Some crows were also tucking their feet up under themselves, so you couldn't see their toes. I think that's probably also to help with heat, protecting their feet with the warm downy feathers on their belly.

Posted on March 8, 2021 09:55 PM by avi_ avi_

Observations

Photos / Sounds

What

American Crow (Corvus brachyrhynchos)

Observer

avi_

Date

March 6, 2021 03:10 PM EST

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