Crowmageddon!

Sunday night was Crowmageddon at Loring Park in downtown Minneapolis. Let me explain. Every month birders in the Twin Cities get together for Birds and Beers. It is a social event to bring birders together and it is hosted by Birdchick. We usually meet at Merlin's Rest but this month decided to have it at Joe's Garage on the edge of Loring Park so we could watch the crows come in to roost for the night.

We arrived at 4:00 for drinks and food. There was an amazing turnout with more people than have ever come before. We had 52 people attend. Birds and beers took over the entire upstairs and part of the downstairs of the restaurant. As the sun started to set we saw groups of two to 10 birds heading away from the park. We were worried the bulk of the roost was going to be just west of our location. As the sun began to set though, more and more of the crows stayed in the park. Soon, they came in wave after wave in groups ranging from 30 birds to hundreds. There was no way to judge the total number of birds. They were still coming in when I left around 8:30. It think it is fair to say the number was easily in the tens of thousands. I shot some quick and dirty video to show what it was like. The shooting conditions were tough as the sun had already set once they really started to come in. The video only gives you a feel for a tiny fraction of the number of birds there. The crows are small, click the full screen button on the video to get the best effect.



~Kirk

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