Family life with a pre-teen. I think I remember those days myself.
One minute they’re all grown up and don’t need their parents AT ALL, next — they just need a snuggle and some comfort food.
At least, when I was raising my kids, I didn’t have moulting to deal with as well.
A moulting crow is a cranky crow, and the whole family is starting that process now.
At least the fledgling can entertain himself with his own escaping feathers
At the same time, Marvin and Mavis are dealing with a pre-teen (Lucky) who is going through the two steps forward, three steps back process of learning to feed himself.
Lucky can definitely come and get his own peanuts from our deck. He has demonstrated prowess (well, competence, at least) in this field.
At first he’d just get one peanut and then wonder what exactly to do with it, but now he’s on to the advanced level of stuffing his gullet to capacity before flying away and hiding some for later, just like mom and dad do.
Other advanced skills include perching on the water bowl and dipping snacks to moisten them.
For most of the day, the family is off on adventures around the neighbourhood, while Marvin and Mavis are presumably teaching Lucky the skills needed to grab more “in the wild” food.
Yet several times a day I still hear Lucky making his begging calls, and every once in a while see one of the parents wavering in their determination to get him self sufficient by stuffing a snack into his waiting beak.
More often the scenario plays out like this …
… and even …
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Luck’s a loveable brat! Obviously one of intelligence and determination! Kudos to Marvin and Mavis for raising her/him!
I love your blog so much! You put into exquisite images and words all the things going on in my world of crows…. Thank you!!!
We seem to only have 1 youngster in my area as well. I sadly found 5 fledglings dead earlier in the summer- some young, but some with feathers. Even less adults this year. Sigh
Love love your crow stories! I don’t know how you differentiate the fledgling from the parents because there’re almost the same size. I had a mum and dad couple (and possibly their their kids) for a few years. I loved giving them treats and they came by every day and were very friendly but alas, my neighbors weren’t impressed with bird droppings so I had to give them up. Very sad for me. I wish I could have my own back yard so I would be able to enjoy watching and learning about these amazing birds!
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