Awake!

Today I awoke to the sound of crows around 6:40 this morning.  There was a great deal of noise outside.  However, the vocals seemed to be different than the calling back and forth (complex) conversations.  This type of interaction I did hear at least once before, weeks back: one crow starts cawing and the others join in.  I think the first bird only gets out only one caw before the others join in- in near...near unison..at least today it was not unison, but near unison.   I don't know how many times a series of unison calls were expressed but I think it may have been several or near several times.  There were breaks between the series of unison calls, but I did not get a feeling that the series of vocals were calling and answering sessions.

I wrote about this type of interaction in "The Chat," an entry from July 17, 2014.  I went back to that entry, and interestingly enough, I interpreted the different series of unison calls as calling and answering sessions- a conversation.  I did not interpret the series of calls as a complex conversation (where different birds participate singularly for an extended period of time), but I did interpret it as a conversation.  Why did I interpret the series of unison vocals as calling and answering sessions that day, but not interpret the series of unison vocals as calling and answering sessions today?

Perhaps it's because on July 17th I was outside with the birds.  Today, I was not.  I suppose what happened is that on July 17th I saw or sensed one bird in a particular tree start the cawing and the others joined in, and then another bird I saw or sensed in another tree some feet away start the cawing and the others joined in- and I interpreted the second series of calls as an answer to the first series of calls.  I think that might...might have happened.

At home I can also get a sense of call and answer sessions without looking outside based on where the calls are coming from.  But today, the calls just seemed close. I have no other information, but I do think the calls were further away that I thought.  In regard to the room I was in today, the window was way above my head and I got no sense of what direction those calls were coming from.  I believe at the time I may have even assumed that it was the same bird starting the unison calls because I had no sense of distance between the series of unison calls.

At least once, one series of unison vocals was followed by caws from a few crows.  There seemed to be at least one single caw and before that maybe...maybe two birds cawing at the same time.  However, it wasn't organized like the unison calls, and there were only very few birds cawing at that time.  I believe this very short session was between two of the unison series.  

My impression was that those few birds were not answering the preceding unison call.  But I don't know. I don't even know if the first bird that starts the unison calls stops when the others join in.  I suppose within a particular series of unison calls, the birds joining in could actually be answering the first bird who caws alone.  But I don't get that impression.  Maybe it's because when the other birds join in, it seems to follow so closely in time behind the first call.  I get the impression the birds join in before the first bird stops talking...hmm, I just don't know.  There's so little I know.  All I can do is keep writing and questioning.

Hoppin' and Cawin'

The other day, someone in my Crow group (Facebook) referred to crows as hopping.  Crows are rather large birds, and most large birds don't hop.  However, I did read about a magpie hopping, which is a cousin to the crow.  Well the other day, I did see a crow hopping.  It was hopping in a tree among the leaves from branch to branch.

This crow was expressing vocals and I found myself wondering if there was a pattern to its calls.  The crow expressed several series of AH sounds.  Sometimes they came 4 at a time, one right after the other.  Sometimes it was 5 in a series.  One, maybe two times there were 3 in a series.  It seemed that 4 AHs in a series was expressed the most.  But why?  What does 4 AHs mean?  How do 4 AHs differ from 5 AHs?  Why was 4 AHs expressed the most in the time I was observing the bird? I didn't notice anything unusual about the AHs.  No one AH sound was dragged out or was expressed in a harsh manner.  The crow went back and forth in regards to the number of calls in a series.  (Sometimes it would be several instances of 4 calls in a series, then 5, then back to 4 and so on.)

Changes

Something's happening, I'm not sure what.  There's something in the air.  Sundays are quiet now.  The crows have stopped most of their extended conversations.  There used to be conversations during the mornings on other days of the week.  There are a few now, but not regularly in the morning and certainly not on Sunday mornings.

I've seen a group of crows at various times, but they are usually silent now, and many times they are on the ground.  There's something in the air.  Things feel different.  Things smell different.  We are only in August, but it sounds like Fall and smells like early Fall.

Back in upstate New York, the crows were not that noisy compared to the crows of Grand Forks, but  they were even more quiet during the fall and winter.  However in Albany, New York after summer, I witnessed an enormous gathering of crows during the evening with lots of talk, although they just appeared to be making noises, instead of having conversations. But maybe that's my ignorance.  Maybe there were conversations going on- more than one, and instead I labeled it as gibberish.  It happened at a bus stop on the SUNY Albany campus. I stood at the bus stop on the campus of SUNY Albany in amazement.  The enormous cloud of birds traveled in a large circle, settling down in trees then getting back up again and flying.  There was this incredible thing going on in air, but no one seemed to notice but me.  I didn't live in Albany, so this was not something I could witness on a regular basis.  During other times of the year, I did not witness extended vocal sessions at SUNY Albany.  In fact, the whole time I lived in upstate New York, I witnessed very few extended conversations.  The most memorable one came from the trees in Schenectady, New York. It was a nice day, probably during the summer.  It was on the Union College campus.

My best friend spoke of the post-summer gathering of crows he saw in Schenectady New York near our home in the early morning.  I myself witness the gathering of crows near our home- a very small number, perhaps less than 10.   In Grand Forks, I've never seen a very large gathering of birds.  Perhaps I've seen at the most, less than 13 birds this summer and only a few birds together post-summer last year.  But this time, I'll be actively looking for them and watching.  We shall see what happens.