Distances: 5 miles, 3.5 miles, rainy days, home yoga (2-3), teach yoga
The other day before the rains came Ciwt opened her back door to a cacophony of squawking crows and noticed they were flying to a tree behind her building
. As she watched at least 60 crows began gathering in the tree 
and on the roofsaround her
. She's seen these gatherings before, sometimes with wicked, yes, murderous fights in the air. (Crows will kill invaders; thus the term murder of crows). There's a riveting fascination to watching these big coal black birds. Partly this is related to a Hitchcock/ Birds-type fear and partly to just watching nature do its thing.In this case it turns out nature is bringing crows to urban environments in droves. Also turns out crows are very smart, have incredibly complex social interactions are omnivores and are strong survivalists. They like places where shooting guns is against the law, and food - any food because they are omnivores - is readily available. They can talk to each other so the word is out that cities provide these things and more.
As for the evening Ciwt was observing, it is generally a fall and winter phenomenon before they pair off and disperse into smaller groups to mate. It's actually a sort of hoe down, social get together. They hang out, goof around, frolic, exchange information and then quiet down and fly off to roost for the night.
http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/american_crow/lifehistory http://www.pbs.org/http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/american_crow/lifehistory http://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/a-murder-of-crows-crow-facts/5965/wnet/nature/a-murder-of-crows-crow-facts/5965/
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