AUBURN - They come to congregate around Fort Hill Cemetery and in city neighborhoods. As dusk comes, thousands more settle in trees along the Owasco Outlet, near the Arterial and South Street for a good night's sleep.
In the morning, they head out to fields in the country and maybe to the city dump on North Division Street, so they can dine the day away. Some stragglers stay in city neighborhoods, looking for food in trash bags.
So how can someone know how many crows there are?
The last serious effort to count the city's crow population came in 1998. Rita Sarnicola, a member of the crow committee that opposes attempts to kill the birds, said her group is planning to pinpoint the crow population in the next few weeks. They're going to wait until the dust settles from next weekend's controversial crow hunt before they start counting.
"We're very interested in their numbers. They need to be studied," Sarnicola said.
No one knows if the population is growing, staying stagnant or getting smaller. Crow expert Kevin McGowan says it's anyone's guess just how many crows have come to roost in town this winter.
In previous years, the number has been put as low as 25,000 crows and as high as 75,000.
A serious effort to find out how many crows take up residence in our trees hasn't been done in several years.
McGowan, a Cornell University ornithologist, conducted the last two extensive counts.
The last one was in 1998 when National Geographic came to town to film a documentary on Auburn's crows.
McGowan gave the filmmakers a range of 25,000 and 75,000, which, by his own admission, is a large difference.
"Yes, they were my numbers. I think that 50,000 became the generally accepted number," he said.
In 1996, he first tried to pin down the number when local leaders asked for his help. At that point, he came up with between 18,000 and 40,000 crows.
Last February, he found a good spot in the Fort Hill Cemetery to count the crows as they flew back into town as the sun went down.
Although it wasn't as scientific an effort as he would like, McGowan guessed about 25,000. But he believes the number might still be much higher.
"It would be interesting to know exactly what's happening," he said. If those numbers hold up, then it has hit "epidemic" proportions, said falconer Mark Westman, who gave a presentation at Thursday night's city council meeting about how birds of prey can be used to reduce the population by 60 to 80 percent.
Getting rid of crows is a difficult task, Westman said. It would take constant pressure of using falcons, hawks, and owls to hunt the crows, combined with the mixture of pyrotechnics, dogs and lasers. And they could return, he said.
Three weeks ago, McGowan, who has been studying crows for more than 15 years, and his colleague from the State University of New York at Binghamton, Anne Clarke, came to Auburn to study the roost and to train Sarnicola and other members of the crow committee how to do it.
"It's not that easy," McGowan said.
McGowan instructed the committee about different techniques they can use, which includes the "blocking" method of counting 100 crows in a tree and then multiplying the number of "blocks" of 100 to estimate a total.
Another way is going some place like the Fort Hill Cemetery, where the flight line of crows come into Auburn at night.
Count the first 100 and then start timing how long it takes for all the crows to settle for the night, he said.
Many times, however, counts are inaccurate and often underestimated. Someone could figure there are maybe 600 crows in a single large tree and actually there are five times that number, he said.
The time of day, the spot where it's done and the temperature also could be factors in getting an accurate count, McGowan said.
Steve Johnson, who created the Save The Crow Web site, pointed out that newborns don't impact the population that much. They merely replace crows that have died. Sarnicola believes the roost is smaller this year than in previous winters - they don't seem to be as densely populated in some areas as they have been.
But don't tell that to Tommy Lennox, an organizer of next weekend's controversial crow hunt.
He has surmised the roost could be 12,000 higher this winter than in previous years. The birds also seem more aggressive in their search of food, he said.
No matter what, the count will drop next weekend when dozens of hunters comb the countryside in search of crows to kill, Lennox said.
"The one thing is for sure, we're going to shoot a bunch of them," Lennox joked.
Last year, about 140 hunters took out 348 crows during the two-day event. He expects the same kind of results this year.
The crow hunt will not put any dent into the crow population, Westman said.
"They're so smart, they stay far enough away," Westman said.
So how can someone know how many crows there are?
The last serious effort to count the city's crow population came in 1998. Rita Sarnicola, a member of the crow committee that opposes attempts to kill the birds, said her group is planning to pinpoint the crow population in the next few weeks. They're going to wait until the dust settles from next weekend's controversial crow hunt before they start counting.
"We're very interested in their numbers. They need to be studied," Sarnicola said.
No one knows if the population is growing, staying stagnant or getting smaller. Crow expert Kevin McGowan says it's anyone's guess just how many crows have come to roost in town this winter.
In previous years, the number has been put as low as 25,000 crows and as high as 75,000.
A serious effort to find out how many crows take up residence in our trees hasn't been done in several years.
McGowan, a Cornell University ornithologist, conducted the last two extensive counts.
The last one was in 1998 when National Geographic came to town to film a documentary on Auburn's crows.
McGowan gave the filmmakers a range of 25,000 and 75,000, which, by his own admission, is a large difference.
"Yes, they were my numbers. I think that 50,000 became the generally accepted number," he said.
In 1996, he first tried to pin down the number when local leaders asked for his help. At that point, he came up with between 18,000 and 40,000 crows.
Last February, he found a good spot in the Fort Hill Cemetery to count the crows as they flew back into town as the sun went down.
Although it wasn't as scientific an effort as he would like, McGowan guessed about 25,000. But he believes the number might still be much higher.
"It would be interesting to know exactly what's happening," he said. If those numbers hold up, then it has hit "epidemic" proportions, said falconer Mark Westman, who gave a presentation at Thursday night's city council meeting about how birds of prey can be used to reduce the population by 60 to 80 percent.
Getting rid of crows is a difficult task, Westman said. It would take constant pressure of using falcons, hawks, and owls to hunt the crows, combined with the mixture of pyrotechnics, dogs and lasers. And they could return, he said.
Three weeks ago, McGowan, who has been studying crows for more than 15 years, and his colleague from the State University of New York at Binghamton, Anne Clarke, came to Auburn to study the roost and to train Sarnicola and other members of the crow committee how to do it.
"It's not that easy," McGowan said.
McGowan instructed the committee about different techniques they can use, which includes the "blocking" method of counting 100 crows in a tree and then multiplying the number of "blocks" of 100 to estimate a total.
Another way is going some place like the Fort Hill Cemetery, where the flight line of crows come into Auburn at night.
Count the first 100 and then start timing how long it takes for all the crows to settle for the night, he said.
Many times, however, counts are inaccurate and often underestimated. Someone could figure there are maybe 600 crows in a single large tree and actually there are five times that number, he said.
The time of day, the spot where it's done and the temperature also could be factors in getting an accurate count, McGowan said.
Steve Johnson, who created the Save The Crow Web site, pointed out that newborns don't impact the population that much. They merely replace crows that have died. Sarnicola believes the roost is smaller this year than in previous winters - they don't seem to be as densely populated in some areas as they have been.
But don't tell that to Tommy Lennox, an organizer of next weekend's controversial crow hunt.
He has surmised the roost could be 12,000 higher this winter than in previous years. The birds also seem more aggressive in their search of food, he said.
No matter what, the count will drop next weekend when dozens of hunters comb the countryside in search of crows to kill, Lennox said.
"The one thing is for sure, we're going to shoot a bunch of them," Lennox joked.
Last year, about 140 hunters took out 348 crows during the two-day event. He expects the same kind of results this year.
The crow hunt will not put any dent into the crow population, Westman said.
"They're so smart, they stay far enough away," Westman said.
