Even Birdbrains Avoid Continued VFR into IMC

[rwanttaja]

I live in a two-story house on a ridgeline, overlooking a valley. The house is about 400 feet above the valley floor. The hillside is fairly steep, and my back yard is fairly narrow before going downhill in a hurry.

There are air commuters in our neighborhood. Hundreds of local crows live atop the hill, in a forest behind my place. In the morning, they all fly down to the valley where, apparently, the food pickings are easier. Every night, just before sundown, they fly back up the hill to the forest.

I was awakened this morning by some odd rattling sounds from my roof. I got out and went into my office (which has a fine view of the valley) to try to figure out what was going on.

As is usual in the winter around here, heavy fog had formed overnight. Visibility was probably 100 feet or less.

The noise? Dozens, if not hundreds, of crows lining up on my gutters. In groups, they'd launch off the roof and start gliding downhill like they normally do. Then they'd get 50 or a hundred feet out, and realize they were losing contact with the ground.

You'd see masses of black birds leap off downhill, fading out into the fog, then there'd be an explosion of wings as they abruptly turned around and headed back to the safety of the roof. There were 2-3 groups, and they were all basically flying in a big circle.

Pretty wild to watch....

Ron Wanttaja

[FlyingRon]

While they can navigate in IMC, it makes finding FOOD difficult.

[rwanttaja]

While they can navigate in IMC, it makes finding FOOD difficult.

"Get-Fed-itis"? :-)

Ron Wanttaja

[Floatsflyer]

Before you venture outside in this IMC, hope you're wearing headgear with a very wide brim. :-)

[rwanttaja]

Before you venture outside in this IMC, hope you're wearing headgear with a very wide brim. :-)

Didn't realize "IMC" stood for, "Incredibly Messy Crows." :-)

What's kind of weird, when I think about it, is that other than the pitter-patter of little crow feet on the gutters, they were pretty much silent. Most of the time when they pass overhead, they're cawing a lot. Not Sunday morning. My wife was also woken up by the rattle on the gutters, but had to ask me later what it was since she didn't hear any caws, either.

Reminds me of that story about crow-kills in Boston. A lot were being hit by vehicles, and when they looked into it, they found that most were being killed by larger vehicles and almost none by passenger cars.

They normally warn each other of approaching vehicles, but not in this case. Turns out that the crows in Boston can say, "Caw," but none can say, "Truck"....

Ron Wanttaja

[caribeanbound]

I have to say that I did not see that one coming. Kinduv like what happens when you meet other traffic in IMC. Thanks for the laugh.