Prelude To A Murder

The stoic sentinels began posting up in the old snag before the crowd began to assemble.  Over the next hour, individuals flew in, beginning with a trickle of smooth flights to land in the field not far from the tree.
All was silent as the group of crows in the field continued to grow with individuals and pairs now swooping in to land.
It was hard to count but the bird total was well above 60 when the sentinels abandoned their outlook post and joined the flock on the ground. That was when the noise of flapping and cawing began in earnest.
The grouping of the frantic and loud display that sounds as if an animal is being mobbed and dismembered is called a murder of crows as far as I have experienced, although the Audbon Society tends to differ with my recollection.

Okay, fine. Maybe an investigation into the origins of the terms is warranted. After all, these dumb names must have come from somewhere, right?
They did—the Middle Ages. The earliest known collection of terms of venery (an archaic term for “hunting”) is in the Book of Saint Albans, a kind of handbook on manliness first published in 1486. Included among chapters on “hawking” and “the blasing of arms” was a list of “the Compaynys of Beestys and Fowlys,” where many of our common terms of venery made their first appearances.  “Pride of lions” is in there, along with a “flock of sheep” and “herd of deer.”

So the murder of crows may not be completely accurate, but the  cacophony originating from the  wild tangle of birds seems most appropriate. After the bizarre display that can last an hour or more, the avian group disperses much like it arrived, in singles and twos.