Date: 1/24/26 5:37 pm From: David <dswiedner...> Subject: [NHBirds] ​Manchester Crow Patrol - Where are the crow roosts?
In November, the main crow roost appeared to be on the islands in the Merrimack River below the falls just W of the Jefferson Mills building at 670 N Commercial St. Then, after the first week in December, the main roost appeared to shift to Manchester's West Side, to the neighborhood near the Pariseau Apartments (NW of Bridge and McGregor Sts.). For the past few weeks, the roost appeared to shift to River Rd. just N of the Amoskeag Bridge.
We know of pre-roost areas near Livingston Park, near the Shell station on Eddy Rd., at Goffstown Rd. and Phillip St., and both N and S of the Piscataquog River near Varney St., Conant St., and the Derby Hill area (in late afternoon, many crows seem to follow the Piscataquog River from the Goffstown area toward the Merrimack). We know of morning non-roost locations along Elm St., Langdon St., Canal St. near FitLab, the Eversource parking lot near Canal St., 155 Dow St., and occasionally on N Commercial St.
Crows are tricky: they wait until after sunset (sometimes an hour or more after sunset) to move to their actual roost location. They also often move from the roost in the 90 minutes before sunrise, so when you see them in trees around sunset or around sunrise, that may not be the place they actually roosted.
When they roosted on the islands in the Merrimack, Mark Timmerman (on 6 December) counted 7,800 crows crossing the river from Amoskeag Fishways to the islands and nearby Millyard roofs. Tonight (24 Jan.) Mark Timmerman and I estimated 3,000 crows at the River Rd. roost. Numbers should have increased since the 7,800 count in December. Where are the rest of the crows? Is there a big roost on the W side of the Merrimack, or father N on the E side? Please post your sightings of pre-roosting and roosting crows!
