We’re still waiting for the appearance of our local crow fledglings, but we did find lots of them up north on our family camping trip this weekend.

Plus bonus marmots!

You’d think the northern crows would be later in the nesting schedule than the Vancouver crows, but the parents at Monck Park near Merritt seem to have been busy early in the season and had success with the first round of nesting

On morning walks I found crow fledglings, often in pairs, blissfully napping on branches, forming little crow nurseries. The parents had clearly parked them in out-of-the-way spots with instructions to stay quiet while mom and dad went for snacks or a little “me” time.

The babies were not long out of the nest, still sporting the blue eyes of the recently-fledged crow.

It was lovely to see crows in a new habitat — the dry, open Ponderosa pine country so different from our rain coast landscape.

The high-pitched sound at the end of the video above? That’s a marmot!

Another marmot was finding the wild roses especially delicious!

I’d never seen a marmot before, so I was especially excited.
Not so surprising to find them at Monck Park, I suppose, given the logo at the entrance!

I’d hoped to see ravens too, but the only ones I spotted were at the Canadian Tire in Merritt, which seemed to be a popular meeting place for them; the raven version of Tim Horton’s!

We had a fabulous weekend — the first time we’ve been camping with both of our kids since they were, well … kids!

It took a year to find a time when we could (a) book a campsite and (b) get everyone together for the same weekend — but so worth it. We’re already planning next year’s family camp getaway.

We’re back home now and I’m working on finishing touches to the 2025 City Crow Calendar (with Ravens!) while keeping a watchful eye on local crow fledgling progress.

 

 

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