The Birds

Late one afternoon I was sitting on my friend Peter's balcony in Vancouver when I noticed a massive murder of crows flying over head. There were hundreds of groups of between forty to sixty birds all heading in a westerly direction, it looked like a "crow freeway" during rush hour. As bird after bird flew by I asked Peter if he knew where they were heading or why? He told me that there was a massive nest somewhere in Burnaby (a suburb of Vancouver) and that they all got together after a good day of scavenging and tearing up peoples lawns throughout the city to "hang out".

A little while later Charlotte and Myself set out to find this nest as she did a story for the french newspaper L'Express du Pacifique. After a bit of investigation we located the their hang out spot a few hundred meters away from the Burnaby Costco (a bulk shopping outlet chain). It was really impressive, masses of crows all perched on leafless trees, squawking and shouting. As soon as one crow would get uneasy with us, all of the crows would take off suddenly, creating what seemed to be a huge chaos loop and just as quickly as it all began it ended as they somewhat neatly re-shelved themselves into the trees around us. Why they chose this specific spot as their home base, I'm not sure, They clearly seem to enjoy the safety and community of being in a large groups. All I know is that it was really great to sit and watch the birds as the afternoon light faded.

Charlotte's full story on the crows in Vancouver can be read in french HERE.

The End.