Somebody in North America has been raising a lot of crows.

A lot of crows.

Crows are actually pretty uncommon in our country. Have a fair number of their larger cousins, the ravens. But not many crows.

Fall is here, and one of the signs is the large, migrant flocks of crows.

As the heeler sisters and I headed west from town to collect wing barrels, I noticed a flock of crows swooping and swirling over the rock ridges just west of the Continental Divide. By force of habit, I started counting. Had well over 80 of those black birds dipping and diving over those ridges.

There's dead ankylosaurs in those ridges (really), but I don't think that is what attracted the crows. Not much aroma or meat left on those bones. Just favorable air currents for the migration south.

But that is still a lot of crows.

Another flock of over forty crows as we neared the farthest barrel.

And at least three small groups of crows swarming over small remains of roadkills on the highways back home.

And 35 crows on the freshly mowed baseball field just a block south of our house. Just like in The Birds.

So I conclude:

One: fall is here. (Gee, the green is gone from the leaves and it has been drizzling/snowing all day. What was the first clue?)

And two: somebody up north raised a lot of crows this summer.