Holy Crow: Birds continue to make their home at MSVU
Posted Jan 5, 2020 03:04:27 PM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Despite recent tree clearing in preparation for new residences, thousands of crows continue to flock to Mount Saint Vincent University on the Bedford Highway.
David Currie, the past president of the Nova Scotia Bird Society, says the crow population has been steady at between 4,000 and 5,000 for the past few decades.
“The crows have decided at this point that the habitat up there is just fine,” he tells NEWS 95.7's The Todd Veinotte Show.
The wooded area near MSVU's former Sisters of Charity Motherhouse was flattened last year, but to the surprise of developers, the crows have chosen to stay.
“There's still enough trees in the area that they will go up into those as it becomes really dark,” explains Currie.
Currie thinks the birds are keen to roost in the area because it has a high vantage point of the Bedford Basin.
“When crows are kind of elevated as they're flying in from all parts of the county,” he says. “It's a very easy and prominent place for them to see and they can find out very quickly from the Dartmouth side if there are any birds already there, and they'll just gravitate to it.”
Typically, students and staff at MSVU can hear the crows as they fly into the area at night, squawking and calling out to each other. In the morning, the crows leave again.
“As much as they make a little noise as they come in and when they leave in the morning, this is a phenomenon that in Halifax we're pretty privileged to be able to see it and see it happen in these huge numbers,” adds Currie.
The birder says the most crows are seen at the Mount in the winter months, and they are most territorial during breeding season in the spring.
From November to March that these birds will congregate in that area, and then in the Spring they'll disperse in pairs and they'll go nest and then wait until the late fall and then start coming back again,” Currie adds.
But with the impending construction of new housing, Currie isn't sure whether the crows will stick around permanently.
“We're hopeful that they will find another spot if it becomes too congested up there,” he explains. “But it's going to be up to them and how they're going to decide on what it is that's going to make it attractive enough for them to continue to go there.”
Currie says that crows, like ravens, are some of the smartest birds in the world, and are used to adapting when their habitat changes.
“We call them generalists. They can adapt to whatever behaviour humans are doing,” he says. “So these birds have adapted to the Mount for a roost and I am absolutely positive they will adapt once those houses go up into that area.”
But as adaptive as crows are, Currie says the rate of bird habitat loss is alarming.
“We tend to take away some of these phenomenal things of nature and this is one of them. It's just too bad that we have to continue to develop and continue to build and destroy these particular special places,” he says.
Currie is certain the murder of crows that calls MSVU home each winter will continue to thrive, whether it is on the university property, or whether they seek out a new place to make their nests.
“They will adapt, they will either move away, go somewhere else where they feel safe, or they will continue to use that area,” he says. “The developer may not like that. But they will figure it out, and they will survive.”
