Thanks for all the help. I ran the same adventure again, but this time for a different group. When I got to the crows, I did as you suggested, turning them into something to deal with immediately. I had the crows get up in their business and told them if they ignored the crows it would put them in a bad position, then asked what the first goblin what they wanted to do. On their action, I made the danger be that they would panic from the crows.
It worked great. It didn't change the tone, really, but the rules felt more fair to everyone, and it still made the crows take roughly the same amount of real time to deal with.
Thanks for making this game!