Crows are objectively spooky creatures. So how wonderful is it that Walrus Magazine has, just in time for Halloween, published this essay by Lisa Gregoire on how the "harbingers of doom" have invaded Ottawa.

Here's how Gregoire's essay, which appears in the magazine's November print issue, begins:

I‘m huddled in a forested bend of the Rideau River, southeast of downtown Ottawa, totally spooked. It’s suppertime and near dark in mid-February. Cars careen along Riverside Drive, but all I hear are thousands of shrieking crows, crowding the bare branches like burned apples. The snow is knee deep inside this communal roost. I close my eyes, and after a few minutes the caw-caw-phony modulates into a kind of radio static, within which I swear I can hear human whispers.

I’m shivering under a toque moist with bird droppings; maybe it’s time to go. I whisper my goodbyes to the inky convention and step-sink my way through the crusty snow to the road, turning around for a final look to see the entire roost above me in flight, a giant, rippling houndstooth blanket drifting toward the Ottawa Hospital, General Campus, where, each winter since 2005, the crows have sought overnight comfort and safety in the industrial warmth and light. Maybe, jokes Carleton University biology lecturer Michael Runtz, they sense weak and dying humans there.

See? Crows are drawn to the fading human soul. Creepy. For Gregoire, popular culture—Alfred Hitchcock's masterwork in particular—is partly responsible for that less-than-flattering reputation, as are the "obnoxious bird bullies" themselves. But we're inextricably linked to them, no matter what:

Crows are a highly evolved, family-oriented, social species, able to adapt quickly, solve myriad problems, use complex tools, and remember for years the faces of enemies and allies. They are fellow survivors, adapting to, and alongside, us. Chimpanzees and dolphins are smart and social, too, but how often do we interact with them? Corvids live on every continent except Antarctica, but they especially love it here in Alta Vista, my leafy ’50s Ottawa suburb. It’s a swell place to raise a family, winged or otherwise.

Interestingly, here's a YouTube video of an enormous murder of crows circling over the city in February of this year. Maybe the gathering inspired Gregoire to write the essay:

The fact crows have evolved to live in close contact with urban dwellers isn't impressing the Riverview Park Community Association, however. They want the crows calling the park home to find somewhere else to rest their beaks.

Still, in the interest of fairness, let's give the last word to someone who's a fan of the birds. Here's an anonymous commenter on the YouTube video above, pointing out the social benefit of having crows hanging around our streets:

Long live these bottom feeders! These guys clean up our streets and keep our taxes down in doing so.

Photo by AlicePopkorn on Flickr