Spring 2024 Crow Sagas — Part 1

April 17, 2024April 16, 2024 / The Urban Nature Enthusiast / 6 Comments

I’m in England now (fingers crossed!) — but before I left I felt I had to write a little catch-up on all of the local crow news. There’s so much to write about, I’ve divided them up into the stories of each crow family I follow, to appear over the next few days.

I notice that I’ve most often written about ravens lately, while it’s crows that mostly make up the fabric of my days.

So why do most of the recent blog posts tend to be raven-themed? Well, ravens are magnificent of course, which is reason enough. Also, as the snow melts, getting up to the mountains to see them will be harder, making them a bit of a seasonal delight.

But it’s also because we usually see ravens on a limited few hours on a trip to the mountains so they naturally make a nice little self-contained story. I don’t really know the minutiae and plot twists of their daily lives.

Crows, on the other hand, form complex sagas that consume my daily life!

The Crow Chronicles seethe with mystery, comedy and tragedy. Each and every day I gather more observations to write about, parse and puzzle over; ending up with a churning ocean of information. How to pull all the plot lines together??? No wonder George R. R. Martin never got to that last chapter of Songs of Ice and Fire!!

My literary problems are as nothing compared to Mr. Martin’s — but it IS always easier to put off writing the epic crow post in favour of a more simple tale of a day out seeing (or not seeing) ravens.

So, before I left, so that the stories don’t exist solely in my own head, I resolved to write the latest chapters in The Crow Sagas.

There may be more spelling/grammar mistakes than usual — no time for editing!!

To start with, the saddest tale.

A REQUIEM FOR WHITE WING

The Wings, in happier days

I’m almost certain that White Wing, one of the crows I’ve known the longest has flown to the great joyful Crow Roost in the sky.

White Wing on October 15, 2023

Last fall, she never seemed to recover from the moulting season and I saw her being attacked by a large group of the rowdy, roaming summer’s end crows. I managed to shoo them off that time, but clearly White Wing was not doing well. I would seek her out, trying to find her without the other crows around, to slip her a few quiet peanuts. Mr Wing was usually nearby her, but he had his own problems with the loss of sight in one eye that came on last summer.

Mr Wing during moulting season, 2023

All winter, White Wing’s signature white feather never quite grew in fully.

The last day I saw White Wing, January 9, 2024

The last time I saw her the feather was just starting to grow in again and I hoped she’d make it to spring, but that day in January was just before the killing cold snap that hit us mid-month. That seemed to be the end for her. I don’t think her incompletely grown-back feathers could keep her warm enough as, even before it got super-cold, I’d see her trying to keep warm on top of chimneys. I haven’t seen any sign of her since the nights hit lows of -20.

White Wing and a fledgling from summer 2023

The Wings were some of the most successful of the local crow parents, year after year, so it’s some consolation to know that there are a lot of little Wing genes flapping around out there — although I’ve yet to see another local bird with White Wings errant white feather.

I’m unsure what happened to Mr. Wing.

Tomorrow: Better News about another crow family!

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© junehunterimages, 2024. 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.

Mr Walker Strides On

March 11, 2023March 10, 2023 / The Urban Nature Enthusiast / 1 Comment

Mr. Walker is number four in my City Crow Stories book of crow characters — and his life seems to be rambling on much as it has in previous years.

He and his mate Wanda wait for the dog and I each morning. If Mr. W is busy in the alleyway checking out the bins, Wanda will let him know it’s time.

Time to drop whatever he’s up to and get himself into position for the daily gallop alongside the “bringers of the peanuts” to the sacred spot at the foot of the massive cherry tree.

Here he is in action this very morning — showing fine promenading form once he gets neck and neck with Geordie, the dog …

As per usual, he strides/ambles/scampers alongside Geordie, waits for him to have the customary sniff at his tree, and then up onto his pedestal for the peanut payoff.

As is also routine, Wanda, having arrived at the tree via air (I’ve never seen her lower herself to pedestrian pastimes), drops down from the branches above to get in first dibs.

Mr. Walker this morning, looking as suave as ever

I wrote last summer about the Walkers’ early nesting failure and, though they did seem to be working on a second nest, I think the stress of another hot dry summer led them to just give up in order to concentrate on keeping themselves fed and hydrated.

It’s a pretty exhausting business raising fledglings, as seen in the book with pictures from 2021 when they raised two of them

They went AWOL for the latter part of the summer and imagined them just kicking back in the shade, tiny sunglasses balanced on their beaks, waiting for the cooler weather. Far too hot for any jogging, even for peanuts.

And, indeed, by fall they were back at the appointed spot — Mr. Walker ready, willing and eager to get back into training for the peanut Olympics.

On this occasion, for once, he beat Wanda to the goodies!

The simple reliability of this little daily ritual is strangely comforting — and Mr. Walker’s enthusiastic perambulation technique always brings a smile.

The Young & The Restless

October 9, 2022October 9, 2022 / The Urban Nature Enthusiast / 3 Comments

In the many years I’ve been photographing and following crows I had never actually had one make physical contact — until this week.

It was predictable in two ways.

It’s THAT Time of Year.

I never get close to being dive bombed in nesting season, which you’d think would be the riskiest season of all.
Nope, it’s early fall, when the local crows are giddy with new freedom, that seems to be the most perilous time for me. The adult crows are free of parental responsibility and the young crows are (literally) spreading their wings and testing the limits of what they can get away with.

These crows, the young and the restless, are unbound by the conventions of who’s territory is whose and general good manners.

This is an annual phenomenon and I’ve written about it a few times. (See Corvid Flash Mobs and Autumnal Adjustments.)

My tactics at this time of year include suspending Peanut Diplomacy until the rowdy phase passes. Sometimes I even change my walking route if things are getting too disorderly.

This year’s bonus challenge is …

Dennis the Menace*

Meet Dennis: he is a 2021 fledgling of Pearl and Echo’s. He (or she) has stayed with mom and dad since then. There were no new fledgling this year, so Dennis is a pampered only child.

Above is Pearl, so named because she often reminds me (in a corvid way) of Vermeer’s portrait, Girl With A Pearl Earring.

I wrote about Pearl and her family in my book, City Crow Stories.

Anyway, Dennis the Menace (or possibly Denise the Menice) has always been a little bit cheeky, following me to the end of his family’s territory and often swooping very close — enough for the occasional rush of wind from a wing against my face. While last year he was kind of scrawny and generally stayed close to his parents, this year he seems to be full of boundless confidence.

Perhaps a little too much confidence …

He keeps a close eye on me as I walk by.

Dennis … and a few of his closest friends (none of them being his parents) following me beyond the normal Pearl family territorial boundaries …

I’m used to Dennis swooping after me, wondering where his peanuts are, and I usually turn around in time so that he’ll swerve off to left or right.

Crows, according to crow scientist John Marzluff, won’t fly at you from the front and he recommends affixing fake eyes to the back of your hat if necessary.

A couple of days ago Dennis actually managed to make contact. I think it was the touch of a claw on the back of my head. Very light and no damage done, but it just shows what a determined little character this particular crow is. No meanness on his part, just a spot of over-enthusiasm.

What worried me much more than Dennis was a time when another clever crow, realizing that swooping close to me didn’t faze me, started to try and find my Achilles heel by flying at Geordie from behind. Geordie (my dog) has always been extremely relaxed around crows, but it would only take one crow landing on his back to change all that — forever!!! Luckily he never noticed how close the crow got as I managed to turn around in time to ward off actual contact and we changed walking route for a couple of weeks, just in case.

Back to Dennis. We had a good talk last time I saw him and he hasn’t managed to catch me out over the last few days. I also turn around a lot when I’m in his neighbourhood.

I was recently thinking of taking up my needle felting again to make some new birds, but now I’m wondering if I should first felt myself a couple of large “eyes” for the back of my head!

* when I gave the name Dennis the Menace, I’m thinking (and giving away my age in saying so) about the comic strip, Dennis and Gnasher, from the UK children’s comic, the Beano — very popular in the 50’s.

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© junehunterimages, 2022. 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.