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Mega-roost of crows darkens Bluefield skies

Bluefield Daily Telegraph photo A murder of crows flies over Bluefield Tuesday.
Bluefield Daily Telegraph photo
A murder of crows flies over Bluefield Tuesday.

BLUEFIELD, W.Va. — A crow mega-roost has returned to Bluefield.

According to City Manager Dane Rideout, the crows are migrating.

“Things migrate, from what I’m being told, November through February, and this area of the country has a huge migration of crows. They stage, from what I’m being told. Which means that that they come together in trees. I think it might be part of their mating. It’s just part of their migration across the United States,” Rideout said.

According to Rideout, a large group of crows is not called a flock but a murder.

“I think it’s more of an annoyance that it is anything. It depends on which side of the fence you’re on. Some people like it and think it’s interesting to look at. It’s definitely a water cooler type of discussion. Then there are those who are annoyed by it and want somebody to do something about it,” Rideout said.

The mega-roost is not a small problem for the city.

“We started having a problem here about four years ago. We started having smaller roosts of crows that came in around the fall months, and then one year it basically escalated until we had thousands,” Samantha Perry, editor of the Bluefield Daily Telegraph, said.

According to Perry, there are so many crows that they blacken out the sky…

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