Group Solve

Great collaboration between ajk and rookie Guffman! Despite being a bird-lover, I still needed the asterisks!

Why have the animals in clues if another step is not necessary, or did I miss something? Nice puzzle you guys!

I was half-asleep when I submitted my first answer, then found my way to the coffee pot and redeemed myself. A very enjoyable way to start the week, thanks!

Very nice debut. Thanks.

You killed it guys! In ONAWIRE, out ONADATE - who could ask for more? Thanks!

I fell for the old "Forget to remember the prompt" and was stymied when my first submission didn't work. Lots of fun, Ed and Alan! Congrats to the Rabbit on his first!

Grid was much harder than the meta.

But I wonder why you put the birds in other clues if they were not used.

Thanks for another great puzzle... tbh I guessed and only saw the metanism later... I saw the groups, but looking at the individual birds, that flew over my head... sorry for being slow to catch on, and for the slow solve, and in general paling in comparison to all you superstars

I was thinking ... but didn't someone already do this mechanism?.... And then I realized not really (https://crosshare.org/crosswords/2SI3yjFgj5a1bIsSoHrK/what-a-lot-of).

Congratulations on a great debut puzzle. Did the puzzle on my phone in the car so missed the asterisks. The title together with PARLIAMENT UNKINDNESS CHIME did it for me. Thanks for a lovely distraction on the road trip to Key West.

As an avid birder, I loved it!

Excellent debut, thanks!

Great puzzle, guys! Gotta say, went down a really deep bunny hole though. So I noticed that the bird names all appear in the clues, so I thought you had to take the first letter of each corresponding grid entry, which spells OPAHS (left to right as opposed to top to bottom). An Opah is a fish, so I first submitted SCHOOL, and then FISH FOR AN ANSWER (which I thought was really clever). Turns out I was overcomplicating, as usual. But it just seemed so perfect that I couldn't believe that it wasn't relevant (the bird names in the clues). Thankfully, a kind Muggle pulled me out of that hole. Thanks for the fun Monday puzzle!

That was so fun!! My WAG was “google”, so I googled all the themers and voila! I had no idea about all these odd collective nouns! I knew murder of crows, parliament of owls, but the others were new to me, and there are tons more on Audobon! Thanks for the fun and the education. I liked the mechanism too… one more step past merely using first-letters. Keep ‘em coming!

Great puzzle! Funny rabbit hole I went down included OASIS a musical group for ASYLUM and LIAM in the grid…

I think I might have gotten it without the asterisks because with the Group and Parliament the first thing I thought of was OWLS. That was reinforced by finding “owls”. Actually I was glad there were the animals because ASYLUM is often tied to LOONS. I was wondering if at some point you considered SLOTH as the S since BEN probably could be BED, or was it birds all the way (as suggested by 1A). Well done puzzle! For a second I thought the referenced animal answers letter would form another word and it was going to be CROWD SOLVE. I liked the last twist and LOVED some of the clues. Favorites include 37A, 33A, 15A and 29D. Is OSU supposed to be Ohio State? (Being from PA and having lived in MI we have our own version of what comes from OSU…)

Seeing 'parliament' was what got me to see it. I'd only heard of that and 'murder' before.

Nice one!! At first I ignored the animals themselves because I noticed they were mentioned in other clues. And I hopped directly to those to look for the answer. Only to evenutally go back to the birds themselves. And hung myself up for a while because my aging eyes thought they saw an asterisk at the beginning of 63a. Extensive interwebbing revealed that MUMMY is NOT a collective noun for any sort of critter. LOL. A most enjoyable debut. Thanks guys!

So fun!

Well done. Thanks.

Fun solve, and nice "group" collaboration. I didn't understand the answer to 19A, but it gave me enough pause to think of cuckoos instead of loons for asylum. Thanks. :)

Similar to others, I figured there must be an extra step but AOHPS wasn’t making much sense and why have it spell out CROWS?! headslap Although also had LOONS for awhile and LROWS wasn’t getting me anywhere.. Fun one!

Thanks, Ed and Alan! Very enjoyable and clever clueing to boot

LIke MatthewL, I went a step too far and chased after the birds in the clues to get AHPSO. (Is there a phrase "an ahpso of crossword constructors"?) Thanks for the fun.

I need to pay more attention. Working on more than one meta at a time and I first submitted the answer to the other meta here! Duh!! I think I need a vacation.

Loved it! Great debut...thanks!

None of the terms in the theme answers were familiar to me, so I was lost without the nudges.

Needed the nudges! Great debut puzzle!

I missed an asterisk ... i didn't see CHIME... so had CROS for the longest time and saw the birds in the clues and tried doing lots of crazy things with them until i gave up... lesson learned, always double-check for missing asterisks... nice puzzle!