Weather by the Crows

Every morning thousands of crows fly over us, heading west, I guess to forage.

Every evening they fly back east, I believe to roosts around Amsterdam.

I swear you can predict the weather by how high they are...storm coming they are low, good weather, up there where the eagles soar.

Today they are sailing right through the backyard like so many hungry kites. No sign of the storm yet though.

And the other day the weather was downright nasty and they were so high they were barely specks in the sky. However, someone was sighting in big guns across the river, boom, boom, boom, all afternoon long. I expect that they noticed.

On the bird count front, for the fall and winter list I am at 34 species seen from house or barn and yards...or heard...heard counts too. I was lacking a killdeer until well after dark the other night when one flew right past the porch screaming its eerie call.

Didn't count a raven I heard the other morning though. It kronked ONCE and never made another sound and I didn't see it, so no go.

Got the bald eagle though after missing it at least six or seven times this summer. I was always walking the puppy when I saw it. No binocs, no camera, and if I went in to get them it was gone.

This time I was once again walking him and it was so high it was just a speck. I managed to race to grab the binoculars before it was out of sight though so there's a good tick off on the list.

For now, unless I get a couple of woodpeckers or some waterfowl off the river (gulls and ducks obligingly fly right through the backyard fairly often) I am not going to get much until I get some sunflower seeds. Only got a handful left.