If Spencer is right and these are the crows who roost in West Lebanon, or Lebanon--I should look this up--a man who lives next door to their roostwrote an angry letter of complaint and ventured his opinion that the town ought to get ride of the nuisance by  possibly shooting or poisoning the birds.Along with one other person, I followed up with a letter in defense of the crows. The letter after mine was very witty, in defense of the crows, and that silenced thefuss--last year, at least. But, perhaps the subject will come up again this year. 
CeceliaWindsor

> Date: Thu, 5 Jan 2012 18:02:53 -0500
> From: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: [UVB] Flocks at 4pm Wednesday
> To: [log in to unmask]
> 
> Not sure what size birds were seen, but American Crows are a likely candidate. Every evening in the winter, flocks gather from all around the area to roost communally. Many years there is a large roost in Lebanon with upwards of three thousand birds. Streams can be seen headed in that direction starting by early afternoon and can become quite a sight.
> 
> Spencer 
> Norwich
> 
> 
> On Jan 5, 2012, at 5:50 PM, Alexander Dickey <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> 
> > Wow, sounds like quite a sight! The only thing I can think of is European
> > Starlings. I've seen them performing similar aerial shows in film clips
> > from Europe. At times they fly together in beautiful shape-shifting
> > "clouds." I've seen them do it here as well, but never as spectacularly as
> > in the videos of them from their native continent. You might try looking
> > their flocking behavior up on Youtube. Good luck!
> > 
> > Best,
> > Alex Dickey
> > 
> > On Thu, Jan 5, 2012 at 3:31 PM, Anna Slack <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> > 
> >> Hello Birders!
> >> 
> >> As I was headed home on I-89 last night I noticed very large flocks of
> >> birds - or possibly one huge flock - trailing in a huge ribbon across the
> >> sky between the Dartmouth exit and heading on back toward the construction
> >> mess in West Lebanon.  Not being trained in such things I was curious to
> >> see if it would make mention on the listserv today - did anyone else
> >> experience this?  What were they?  It was quite impressive, it reminded me
> >> how entire caves of bats will fly in mass exodus into the night skies for
> >> feeding.  So much so, in fact, that I began to wonder if it was bats....or
> >> what could have possibly stirred up such a movement.
> >> 
> >> Thanks for any info & please forgive if my terminology is not correct!
> >> 
> >> Curiously,
> >> 
> >> Anna Slack
> >> 
> >> Programs Coordinator, UVLT
> >>