The other day, I heard a raucous crow sound much more than usual, so I went outside to see a gathering, a "murder" of about 50. Their sound was remarkable, more than the usual vocabulary it seemed, "ggg-aw-aw-aw! rack! rack! honk!" or something. It took an hour so get any decent shots of them all in flight at once. I sat there trying to guess when it might happen and eventually came to the conclusion that they mill about, relax and show off for awhile with one-on-one combat or mating displays, then one will shout something like "fire!" and they all go to the air at once. They'll circle around and have fun with aerial combat for awhile and one by one go back to the same perches they had before. But this takes lots of jostling and negotiations for each spot. So, ten minutes of that. Then wash, rinse, relax, repeat! Over and over. Now it's been a few days and I've seen only one crow at a time and no messing around! So, this is a condensed version. I've also made a large color version for tomorrow. Cawww-ack!