The scene — eerily similar to one from Alfred Hitchcock’s film “The Birds” — has repeated itself several times a week for at least the last several months.

At about 5 p.m. — maybe a little later or maybe a little earlier — they descend on an empty, grassy field on the west side of Bothell Way Northeast, just a bit north of State Route 522. The field is to the side of the Bothell Safeway, not to mention across the street from the offices of the Bothell-Kenmore Reporter.

If you somehow don’t know, “they” are crows. Thousands of them. Or what seems like thousands of them. Their repeated presence has prompted more calls to the Reporter office than any other topic recently, as well as attracting plenty of attention from bystanders.

“They never really bothered me, but they are noisy,” said Jody Fromen, who added she regularly walks her dog in the Bothell Way field. Fromen added the crows don’t seem to bother her husky terrier, though the birds usually take flight as the dog wanders up.

In the case of that field on Bothell Way, what the very boisterous birds — American crows, to be exact — are doing is having a snack and/or dinner, according to University of Washington professor of environmental sciences, John Marzluff.

“They have pretty set places where they forage… They will return to the same place over and over again,” Marzluff said, adding those places can be the parking lot of a fast-food restaurant or a ball field where worms or maybe acorns might be on the menu.

Marzluff has devoted a large part of his career to the study of crows, co-authoring a book on the subject, “In the Company of Crows and Ravens.” On the day he agreed to talk to the Reporter, he also had done interviews on the birds for an Australian radio station and a newspaper in Philadelphia.

To top off his credentials as a local expert, Marzluff used to live in Kenmore and is very familiar with where the area’s crows used to roost, namely the Kenmore Park and Ride on Bothell Way Northeast.

Notice that the use of the past tense concerning the roost was deliberate.

Marzluff said during the colder months of the year, crows gather nightly in large, communal roosts, mostly for protection from predators, as well as for shared warmth. They also may seek out potential mates. In any case, Marzluff added that over the last several months, crows that used to gather at Kenmore’s Park and Ride have moved to an environmental restoration site on the campus of the UW-Bothell.

The spot sits near the intersection of 113th Avenue Northeast and Campus Way Northeast.

“I don’t know why exactly, but there’s a large number of birds converging on this new roosting site,” he said, though he later added the birds slowly might be making their way back to the park and ride. By moving their roost, Marzluff said the birds may just be trying to be unpredictable. When attempting to avoid natural predators, being unpredictable is a good strategy, Marzluff contends. For local crows, owls are the biggest threats, along with certain hawks.

No matter where they are roosting, during the day, Marzluff said the crows will set off from that roost in search of food.

“Bothell is right in the flight path,” Marzluff added in the case of the campus roost, a flight path that explains the large number of crows often in that field on Bothell Way Northeast and, according to some reader reports, a few other spots around Bothell and Kenmore.

As for their new roost, the local birds have taken over a large stand of dogwoods and willows. Apparently, the willows are the main attraction. Marzluff said the soft wood of the trees acts as a kind of sensory net for the crows, enabling them to easily detect any movement in their roost. An owl may get one crow, but the rest will be gone before they become anybody’s dinner.

“They can respond quickly to any threat,” Marzluff said.

How many birds have moved to the UW-Bothell is hard to say. To count the birds, Marzluff said you block off large numbers of them as they take flight and estimate how many might be in that block. On a recent Sunday, during a solo attempt at a count of the UW-Bothell roost, Marzluff numbered about 3,700 birds. But he assumes the actual count is much higher, probably anywhere from 5,000 to 10,000.

Marzluff said his count wasn’t more precise since all the birds don’t leave the roost all at once, meaning any one seeking a good count would have to stick around at the site for some time. He also noted one person simply can’t keep track of all the birds as they leave.

Marzluff said many people understandably worry about diseases being spread by the huge numbers of birds, but stated there is no reason for concern.

“They don’t carry diseases,” he said. In fact, they can give human observers early notice of the arrival of the much publicized West Nile virus.

Crows are — literally — a dead-end host for the disease, which makes deceased birds a sign of the possible presence of West Nile. But while crows are susceptible to the sickness, they don’t pass it on.

As for the inevitable feces, Marzluff admits it can be messy and annoying. It also carries a certain amount of bacteria, but, like the birds themselves, it isn’t harmful. As the birds roost, their waste actually becomes a valuable fertilizer in natural areas.

Finally, of course, there is the noise all those crows tend to make.

“The sound can be frightening,” Marzluff said. The noise is apparently what led to a Japanese superstition that holds living next to a crow’s roost is unlucky.

As spring approaches, the Bothell roost and the food gathering parties around the area should all drop in size and decibels. As they begin to nest, crows become very territorial and the females start sticking to themselves. Males and females not nesting will continue to use the roost.

Marzluff likes to note there is plenty scientists don’t know about crow behavior. For example, when you see a flock arrive at night, does the same flock stay together and leave together the next morning? Not too surprisingly, Marzluff insists the comings and goings of the large numbers of birds is impressive.

“It can be pretty spectacular,” he said.