"A murder of crows" and other diversions

Great phrase, isn't it - and it sends me on all sorts of tangents:
-it's the title of an exhibition in Edmonton, Alberta - which literally sounds like a nightmare-an exhibition, or rather a project, a guided walk in the East End, by Janet Cardiff - which I never did manage to do, though it was highly recommended; she and George Burres Miller have put together many walks as artworks (and their installations are interesting too - have a look at the sequence of photos for The Secret Hotel, for instance)-the fascinating book Crow Country by Mark Cocker ("a prose poem in a long tradition of English pastoral writing" in which "he uncovers the complexities of the birds' inner lives, and the unforeseen richness hidden in the raucous crow song he calls 'our landscape made audible' "). I bought it during the drawing day at the Natural History Museum just over a year ago, have read it with great pleasure up to page 143, and will get back to it one day soon...-the other amazing collective nouns - an exhaltation of larks is the one that comes first to mind, and is the title of a book of engravings that's been around for a long time ... I'm trying to find it, but it's not "Of a Feather: An Avian Alphabet" by Colin See-Paynton, which is a wonderful collection of engravings - Gregynog Press has produced a wonderful edition-another book of that title is by James Lipton (it's about "the game of venery" - !)-my journal quilt last year for March, "crow moon" (the yellow one!), for which I had to start looking at and drawing crowsI've had a great time putting this post together, but that's altogether enough tangents for the moment.