Small Joys And A Surprise Return

October 23, 2026October 22, 2026 / The Urban Nature Enthusiast / 1 Comment

You may remember last year’s post about Lou, one of Mavis and Marvin’s 2025 fledglings. I always had a special spot in my heart for this little one, and hoped he’d stick around for a while.

He did stay around all winter, but disappeared around the start of this spring’s nesting season.

In many ways, I wasn’t surprised if Mom and Dad had encouraged him to move on. Their previous stay-at-home fledgling, Lucky, remained with them for almost three years. While he or she was a well-loved family member and handy reinforcement in the frequent territorial disputes with rival neighbours, Norman and Nancy, s/he wasn’t a very effective nest helper, with no new fledglings born during the “Lucky” years.

Norman & Nancy being yelled at by Marvin, Mavis & Lucky

Below is one of my all time favourite videos, showing Marvin (left) encouraging Lucky (middle) to put more oomph into his partisan cawing during one of many verbal battles with the neighbours.
It’s not the greatest video, technically, but I love the family dynamic it captures.

After two springs with no fledglings, it was time for Lucky to move on. Lesson learned, it would seem that Marvin and Mavis allowed Lou one winter with the family, before urging him to head off and see the world.

Alas, even without a “teenager” at home, Marvin and Mavis had no luck in the 2026 nesting sweepstakes.

Marvin and Mavis guarding their territory on a breezy summer day.

At one point in the summer they had a brief visit from a crow that I suspected was Lou coming home to check in on the folks. The mystery crow acted very much like Lou, but I couldn’t get a good enough look to be sure — and then they were gone again.

But, on September 23, he was definitely back.

Lou’s personality is enough to provide a strong clue to his identity all by itself— something about his general bounciness, his insatiable curiosity and constant motion. He’s prone to adopting a bowing posture, like his dad, and often scans the sky for danger — a good trait for self-preservation in any young crow.

But the gold standard of Lou-identification has always been the tiny little patch of white feather on the left side of his head.

I had assumed that he’d lose that tell-tale patch after moulting season, but it’s still there! He was still moulting a little in September, so the patch was a little harder to spot amid the scruffy plumage — but definitely visible.

You can see some of his personality, and the little white mark, in this video, taken shortly after he returned in September

By October 1, he was mostly past the moulting phase and his feather marking was much clearer.

Family group, Marvin back right, Mavis back left and Lou in foreground

Mom and Dad seem happy to have Lou move back in with them for the winter, and I am certainly happy to see three of my favourite crows back together again.

Marvin and Mavis are the crows I’ve known the longest now, with handsome Marvin chosen as the 2027 City Crow Calendar cover. His is the crow story and portrait for January, with Mavis featured in May, and Lou rounding out the year in December.

Fluffy Marvin at the start of moulting season

Marvin earlier this week

Mavis on the same day

The degree to which seeing Lou every day brightens my day is kind of ridiculous, but there it is …

Which reminds me of a blog post I’ve been bouncing around in my brain for year: “Crows and Wealth Management.”

The concept relies upon the simple formula of Joy = Wealth

It’s a simple equation, yet one we often get reversed; sometimes it just takes a young crow chasing seeds in a parking lot to help us get it right.

For more on Marvin, Mavis and Lou:

© junehunterimages, 2026. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to junehunterimages with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

Neil Young, The Crow

August 21, 2026August 20, 2026 / The Urban Nature Enthusiast / 4 Comments

Neil and his companion, Nellie, are new to the neighbourhood, and their story is one of a young couple in a highly competitive real estate market.

This may be a familiar tale to many.

I first noticed them this spring, when they seemed all set to start a new family in an area that was once a very desirable crow property, close to Fearless Fred and Florence’s block.

So, how did Neil and Nellie come to command such a sought-after piece of territory?

This is a two-part puzzle.

PART ONE — THE REAL ESTATE SITUATION

Good crow breeding areas in Vancouver are highly sought after — by crows, mostly.

The history of Neil and Nellie’s territory is a tale as old as real estate — a once-sought-after area fallen on hard times.

It’s a venerable crow neighbourhood, once favoured by now-departed local celebrities such as the Wings and and the Walkers, with lots of big leafy trees and friendly human neighbours who leave bowls of water out in the dry season. Property values, however, took a tumble when the local hawks decided to nest in the adjoining block.

Cooper’s Hawks have always lived and nested in this general area, but this year they built their nest very close by. As you can imagine, hawks are on the crows’ perpetual “undesirable neighbours” list because they consider crow eggs and fledglings to be on the grocery list for their own babies.

I often imagine a “crow’s-eye-view” overlay on urban maps. Such a map would survey the landscape from a purely corvid perspective, highlighting features that we, as humans, might not notice, but which would be “make or break” factors for crow house-hunters.

Imaginary Crow real estate listing:

Luxurious Crow Dwelling Opportunity with Beak-Dropping Amenities
Don’t miss out on this tranquil, crow-friendly East Vancouver territory, featuring storybook tree cover for tranquil nest building and secure fledgling concealment, plus meticulously human-tended lawns for grub and worm opportunities. Only a short waddle to the restaurant dumpster with the ill-fitting lid of your dreams for year-round family dining.
Low maintenance and move-in-ready!

PART TWO — YOUNG COUPLES STARTING OUT

Much like their human counterparts, young crow couples often have to start their real estate journey in less-than-ideal circumstances.

And, Neil and Nellie appear to be very young crows. They’re smaller than average, with the duller, brownish feathers of immature birds. I would guess that Neil is about two years old and Nellie about the same.

The pair built a nest in April, and Nellie exhibited all the signs of a female crow about to go and sit on eggs — begging for food from the male to remind him he’d be responsible for regular food deliveries while she’d be on incubation duty and confined to the nest.

Except that Neil seemed to have absolutely no interest in sharing his food finds with Nellie …

Time and time again, I’d see Nellie trying to get Neil to put food in her beak, only to have to give up and go get it herself.

This continued well into the time she should have been sitting quietly on the nest, and I began to think that these two, while close companions, were not really serious about parenthood. They seemed to be just playing at the whole nesting business, a bit like kids playing “house.”

Whether their hesitation has more to do with their youth, or the hawk’s proximity, remains a small mystery.

Meanwhile, having Fred and Flo as neighbours has it’s pros and cons for Neil and Nellie.

While Fred’s fearlessness is handy for moving the hawks along, his young neighbours can also bear the brunt of his mettlesome personality. This may explain Neil’s perpetually worried look.

Neil Young Crow

Just to keep things confusing, sometimes Fred and Florence are friendlier, allowing Neil and Nellie to come close and hang out with the family, leading me to wonder if perhaps they are related. Could Neil or Nellie be one of Fred and Flo’s kids from a previous year? As always, more questions than answers …

I guess only time will tell if Neil and Nellie will stick around until next year. Maybe, by then, the hawks will have moved their nest to a new block, and our intrepid young couple will have lucked into some prime territory in which to have many babies and live long and happy crow lives. Fingers crossed!

In the meantime, Neil has already been the model for two of my new crow prints: Neil Young Crow and News Crow (above.)
It’s unclear whether Neil just likes to keep abreast of current affairs, or if he’s considering the newspaper box as a potential emergency shelter from fierce neighbours.

Fearless Fred Newsflash

July 22, 2026July 21, 2026 / The Urban Nature Enthusiast / 5 Comments

Well, I’m afraid the crow news has entirely gotten away on me. Each time I go outside, there are new things to report on, but finding the time needed to get it all written down eludes me. I could use a crack team of crow correspondents to keep up with it all!

So, for no particular reason, let’s have a look at how Fearless Fred and his family are doing so far this summer.

There was a period, earlier in the nesting season, when I thought Fred’s fearlessness may have been his undoing. I saw him chasing one of the local hawks one day, and then didn’t see him at all for two weeks, leaving me imagining a sad pile of Fred feathers somewhere in the neighbourhood. Luckily, he was just busy with baby stuff and suddenly reappeared, once again fully committed to pulling Geordie’s tail AND looking after the babies. He’s still chasing hawks too — a bit of a Renaissance crow all round.

Fred sidles up to Geordie’s tail for a quick peck

It seems that Fred and his mate, Florence, have two fledglings this year.

The hawk was back again yesterday, and below is one of the babies keeping a low profile in a tree while mom and dad dealt with the problem visitor. With backup from crow neighbours, Neil and Nellie Young, they managed to persuade the raptor to move on to other hunting grounds.

Being a dad is a busy job all by itself, but Fred somehow finds time to be an excellent parent, while still pursuing his extra hobbies.

Clearly, Fred and Florence are raising the kids right, as one of the fledglings has already learned how to reciprocate affection by giving Mom a nice head scritch.

The weather is hot and dry, but Fred was spotted making a spa experience from a puddle after some heavy rain earlier this month.

And, of course, he keeps up on his dog tail grabbing hobby …

Apologies for the loud motor noise in the video — it’s rarely quiet here in the city!

This is a good representation of Fred’s technique. He makes a quick assessment of the situation, sidles up to the target sideways and dives in to make his move.

The other day, I noticed Fred following another dog walker and I asked her if Fred also pulled her dog’s tail. She said he did not, but he does regularly swoop over her shoulder, or give her a poke (which he also does to me, from time to time.) She mentioned this to another neighbour, who knew all about his antics and recommended giving him peanuts.

So, who knows how many people Fred has a “special” relationship with.

It always makes me laugh when I hear about human projects to “train” crows to do things for the humans’ benefit — like picking up cigarette butts or garbage.
I think it’s clear from Fred’s example exactly who, in the human-crow equation. is doing the training.

Fred is in the 2027 City Crow Calendar. I picked him as the April crow, since he’s probably the biggest joker of all the crows I’ve known.