Naturalist and educator Teage O’Connor has been counting crows in Burlington for the past 12 years. During the winter months, thousands of birds flock to Burlington from the surrounding towns to roost together overnight. You can often see them between the hours of 4 and 6 p.m., traveling in large numbers and filling the trees. These urban roosts are becoming more common across the country, and the crows can make quite a ruckus when they land in a residential neighborhood.
Eva joined Teage on one of his crow safaris, first on foot through Centennial Woods, then by car to Riverside Avenue and, eventually, to the University of Vermont campus, where the birds settled down for the night. Drone photographer James Buck also followed the birds by air on a few different evenings to get a bird’s-eye view.
Shooting date: 2/10/20
Music: Unicorn Heads, “A Mystical Experience” & “Generations Away”
This episode of Stuck in Vermont was supported by
New England Federal Credit Union
This article appears in Feb 19-25, 2020.
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I’ve always called it the crow commute. It’s one of my favorite parts of winter!
They often fly over my house in BTV and I always run out to watch them. So amazing seeing such large numbers of crows roosting in our urban area.
Thank you for this. I live near Centennial Woods and sometimes the noise is amazing. Teague is a good teacher.
Another favorite roosting area is Red Rocks Park. The noise and commotion is really something.