BOTHELL, Wash. — It happens like clockwork.
"Right around sunset, you'll see some crows trickling in," said Douglas Wacker, associate professor of animal behavior on this campus.
When the sun goes down on the University of Washington Bothell thousands of crows come to campus.
"You just see lots and lots of black birds in the sky, and it's quite cacophonous as well. They can be quite loud and yeah, it's fun,” Wacker said.
After the ruckus they roost, settling in for the night in a nearby natural area.
“They go over to our North Creek wetlands restoration where they sleep,” Wacker said. Thanks to this campus phenomenon he knows crows.
“It was natural for me to start studying crows and it was great because they're incredibly interesting,” he said.
The fact that these crows choose to snooze on a college campus is also appropriate.
"They're super smart, yeah, I guess it's an apt place for them to sleep," Wacker said.
Wacker and the undergraduates he teaches study the sounds crows make, using remote recorders placed on campus rooftops, and also placed in trees where the crows roost.
“Personally, I think they're fascinating because they're intelligent and they're social, and they have a pretty big vocabulary of sounds that they make,” Wacker said.
If you want to catch the crows, Wacker says to arrive at sunset on a clear day.
“The closer you get to the middle of winter, the better," he said.
You can also attend the free annual Crow Watch – it’s happening on Wednesday, Dec. 11 from 4 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. at the Activities & Recreation Center on the UW Bothell Campus.
These birds may not be the official University of Washington mascot. But the UW crows rule this roost.
“It is really, I think, part of our identity here at Bothell. People know about the Bothell crows. They're excited about them.” Wacker said. “I'm happy that they're here.”
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