EXTRA...

As the crow flies--Cape Cod to the Vineyard (and back)

TODAY's quote: “It is probably part of their evolutionary process . . . tied to ‘safety in numbers.’ It is fascinating watching the birds stream in, fly across the water, rise over East Chop, fly over the Portuguese-American Club right to Farm Neck." - Ben David.

1,500 crows commute daily over Nantucket Sound to dine on Cape Cod

   This  "murder of crows" is on an old tree outside my office window. A group of crows is called a flock or a murder because the group will sometimes kill a dying cow. I checked, and they said they were from Oak Bluffs. Walter Brooks photo.

Those crows taking all your birdseed away from the chickadees are "carpetbagger" from Martha's Vineyard who commute to Cape Cod every day to dine.

It's only a five mile flight from West Chop to Woods Hole, and crows from Nantucket only have twice that trip from Great Point to the end of Monomoy.

The Vineyard Gazette is one of, if not THE, best weekly in America. It was raised to glory in the mid 20th Century by Henry and Elizabeth Hough (yes, cuz to the Falmouth Enterprise Houghs), carried higher starting in 1975 by Dick and Jody Reston until Jane Seagrave took over as publisher last year, it continues to delight with stories written with the style and aplomb of a New Yorker or Vanity Fair.

As an example, this week the Gazette writes,

"There is a group of about 1,500 winter commuters a day between the Cape and Martha’s Vineyard, and not one of them takes the ferry. They all fly."

"The commuters are crows. They leave for the Cape early in the morning and return to the Vineyard around 4 p.m. to spend the night here.

"The phenomenon, known among some birders for years, is now the subject of a scientific study that promises to shed light on the reasons for, and effects of, this curious behavior."

"He [Robert A. Culbert] and others posit that after a day of foraging on the Cape, the birds retreat to the Vineyard for rest, relaxation and refuge from their predators, primarily owls, which are more prevalent on the Cape than on the Island."

'Bob Prescott, director of the Massachusetts Audubon Society’s Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary we have lots of crows on the Cape, adding that 'the number is off the charts.'"

Read the Gazette story here.

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