Spring 2024 Crow Sagas Part 2

April 18, 2024April 16, 2024 / The Urban Nature Enthusiast / 3 Comments

RETURN OF THE WALKERS

When I said in the last post that I’m “almost certain” that White Wing is gone, it’s because you never really know for sure with crows.

Take, for example, the Walkers. Since they both disappeared last summer I thought they were gone for good.

Mr. Walker, who used to walk with us daily, suffered an injury to his left eye at about this time last year. Wanda had already lost the sight in one of her eyes (the right) several years earlier.

I followed the Walkers’ progress obsessively through the 2023 nesting season. Mr. Walker seemed badly affected by his eye problem, but pulled himself together enough for them to build a nest and fledge two little crows. Tragically, both fledglings had very bad avian pox. Starting with Mr. Walker the whole family disappeared completely in the space of a week in July.

With no sign of any of them all of that summer, fall and most of the winter, I assumed that the Walkers were gone for good.

Wanda was always by far the more timid of the Walkers, always leaving Mr. W to be the “public facing” family member— getting out there and hustling the necessities of crow life.

Wanda, June 2019

Suddenly, this January, Wanda was back. Not only was she back, but she seems to have undergone a personality transplant, transforming from Shrinking Violet to Boadicea.

Wanda, after apparently spending winter in Warrior Queen School — January 2024

Even more miraculously, Mr. Walker is also back.

The Walkers, April 2024

But there are big changes in the Walker family dynamic — Wanda is now by far the bolder of the two, while Mr. W hangs back and observes. I fear that Mr. Walkers walking-beside-us days are over as he’s now very reluctant to be on the ground at all, probably still adjusting to his limited range of vision.

Mr. Walker, March 2024

I’m not sure now nesting season will go for them this year, as Wanda will have to rely on Mr. W to bring her food once she’s on egg sitting duty. Perhaps Mr. W will get a little bolder, or they may just decide to sit this season out until he adjusts a little more. I guess I’ll find out when we get home in a month.

As soon as we put the suitcases down I’ll be out there doing a neighbourhood crow check!

But I do love that the Walkers have managed to (a) survive (b) stick together and (c) modify their couple roles to adjust to the hand they’ve been dealt. Their story reminds me a lot of George and Mabel’s story of survival and flexibility. Mabel supported George when he lost half of his top beak and went on to be a dominant force on the local crow scene, even after George had passed.

Tomorrow: Benjamin update!

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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.

Always Something New …

August 19, 2023 / The Urban Nature Enthusiast / 2 Comments

After over ten years of watching crows every day you sometimes think perhaps you’ve seen it all, but no — they always have something else amazing up those feathery sleeves.

I’ve written before about the crow (and squirrel) festival we have at the end of our street when a combination of walnut, hazelnut and chestnut trees start producing their harvest. Hundreds of crows stop by on the way to the roost in the evening and have big noisy get-togethers while feasting on the bounty. This usually starts in September.

It’s only August, of course, but it’s been so hot and dry that the trees are dropping fruit early. Bongo and Bella are anxious to get in on the action on their home turf, so I’ve seen them a few times now dropping walnuts, still in the green husks, from the hydro wires onto the road to try and break them.

Anyway, there was either Bongo or Bella dropping a nut this morning when one of the fledglings came over to have a look at what mom or dad was pecking at.

Instead of begging for a taste, they crouched down and started making the rattle call.

The rattle call continued as they went on to adopt a fully prostrate pose in the middle of the road. I’m not sure if they were addressing this display to the parent crow or the walnut.

Bongo or Bella decided to leave the fledgling to their walnut-worship and sauntered off.

Left alone with the prize, the fledging took a few investigatory pecks and also wandered off.

Lessons no doubt learned. But what exactly that lesson was, I’d love to know.

More on Bongo and Bella and the kids tomorrow …

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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.

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.