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Spring 2024 Crow Sagas Part 2

/ 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.

 

All Season Crows

/ The Urban Nature Enthusiast / 11 Comments

A month into 2024, and the crows, like the rest of us, have already experienced several seasons.

Vancouver has had “mild and wet” followed by “bloody freezing” and “snowpocalypse” leading, inevitably to “slushmageddon” with, “record-breakingly warm and wet” to round out the month.

We’re all suffering from weather whiplash!

2024 began with pretty standard Wet Coast weather — good conditions for “crows in puddles” photography.

Marvin, Mavis and Lucky (right) debate puddle ownership with Norman and Nancy (January 8)

By mid-month temperatures had plunged to around -13C at night (colder with the wind chill factor) and it was “tuck your feet up into the pantaloons” time for the crows …

… and “wake up at the crack of dawn to check the hummingbird feeder” for me.

After several frigid days the cold snap eased — and the snow started.

It kept on snowing until our neighbourhood was an unrecognizable winter wonderland. The human inhabitants shovelled … and shovelled … and shovelled some more.

Sometimes there was just too much shovelling …

People got around on skis and toboggans and schools were closed for two days in a row. If you didn’t HAVE to get somewhere, it was magical.

“Snow had fallen, snow on snow, snow on snow” — Christina Rossetti

One of my favourite moments was seeing a little girl in a pink snowsuit passionately declaring while throwing herself face-first into the snow, “This is the BEST day of my life!”

Of course, she probably didn’t have to do any shovelling!

My biggest regret: not getting a picture of the night-time unicyclist pedalling through the snow with a plastic toboggan tucked under one arm.

More standard snow commuting options — dig out the car or risk a bike ride.

The crows, unequipped with shovels or sleds, just had to forge their own way through the drifts.

Especially for last year’s fledglings, it must have been confusing to find their normal perches inaccessible. Roofs, railings and branches were suddenly at capacity with snow, making Hydro wires the most reliable landing option.

At least one crow did some of his or her own “digging” to make more room.

A little bit of snow crow semaphore …

Send …………………………………………peanuts ………………………………………… please!

Of course, this being Vancouver, the magic was fleeting and there were more days of slush than there had been of snow.

Slightly confused gull

Lucky in slush

Sparky doing his best in the slush

Vancouver rain acts like a fire hose, and we were soon back to our seasonally normal colour palette of black, white and grey.

Bongo in his damp monochrome world

On the plus side, it’s now back to excellent puddle photography weather!

It’s so mild that it feels … sneakily … unreliably … a bit like spring.

The hellebores are in full bloom!

I haven’t had a chance pick some, place them in a bowl photograph them yet, but I will as soon as it stops raining.

In the meantime, here’s a tiny (literally) sneak peak at a little hellebore- happiness-raven inspired thing I’ve been working on …

 

 

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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.

12 (Belated) Days of Ravens

/ The Urban Nature Enthusiast / 5 Comments

During the holidays, I posted one of my favourite raven videos for twelve days in a row on my social media pages. I planned to post them daily here as well, but as all the family festivities started to gather steam, I ran out of raven-time.

So here, with apologies, are your belated ravens.

Those who’ve followed the blog for a while will have seen some of these before, but I’m putting this collection together with the thought of you sitting at home with your feet up and a cup or glass or something nice at hand, enjoying them one after another.

Hint: I’m told that some cats also get a kick out of the sounds in these videos!

1.  Goofy Ravens in the Snow

My most popular video, viewed so many times I just stopped keeping track.

What we have here is a pair of ravens (part of a bigger group) playing and snow bathing on a foggy day on Mount Seymour a couple of years ago …

 

2.  Raven Makes The Knocking Call

A video taken last winter of a raven making that magical knocking call that sounds like a perfectly tuned hollow wooden instrument of some sort. You can see the raven’s breath as he or she propels the call into the chilly mountain air.

 

3. Raven Pair in Conversation

This is one of several videos I’ve shot (the cats will love this one) of raven couples having a bit of a domestic chat. In this case, the raven on the right has eyebrows raised as I often see when ravens are interacting. Obviously it means something, but I’m not sure what. The beak play is a sign of affection.

 

4. Raven Photobomber

As I spend countless (often fruitless) hours looking for ravens on our hikes, it was quite the unexpected bonus to have my video of a snowy rivulet photobombed by this handsome visitor.

 

5. Construction Site Raven

You don’t always have to be in the mountains to spy a raven! This video shows one at the end of our street enjoying some construction worker’s left over lunch orange at the huge building site we had here in 2020. The raven is happily oblivious to the massive machinery all around, not to mention the scolding of the local crows.

6. Raven Family Interaction

This video is from about 2018 and shows a group of three ravens. I get the impression that they’re a family just because their interaction reminds me so much the teenage years at our house. “Stop mucking about. Pick up your socks. Do your homework. Etc.”

7. Raven Recitation

This is also an older video, showing one of the ravens that used to frequent our neighbourhood before the big trees came down in 2020. The very deliberate series of calls, each one so carefully enunciated, really reminds me of a corvid poetry reading.

8. Raven, Eagle and Crows

Shot with my phone across several lanes of truck traffic, this video grainily captures a moment of raven determination and  nerve.

The crows were already assembled and harassing a juvenile bald eagle in the tree. The eagle was eating something and the raven who next arrived clearly had a plan to get that snack. With little hesitation the raven hopped up the tree to just below the eagle.

There the raven stopped for about half a minute — perhaps reconsidering the risky plan, or just waiting for the perfect moment — before grabbing the eagles tail and forcibly yanking the much bigger bird right out of the tree.

The startled eagle took off, pursued by gleeful crows — leaving the raven to the dropped prize.

9. Raven Knocking Call Two

Another video of that lovely “temple bell” raven call. This time the raven is facing the camera, so you can see how the throat feathers fan out as they make the sound.

10. Raven Says Ho Ho! Ho!

This raven, filmed the week before Christmas this year, seems to be saying “Ha! Ha! Ha!” which I was sure, when looking at it later, must be corvid for “Ho! Ho! Ho!”

Or it could just be that I’d been drinking too much eggnog at that point …

11. Ravens Playing With Snowballs Part One

One of my all-time favourites — ravens playing like puppies over a chunk of snow. Mount Seymour, 2019.

12. Ravens Playing With Snowballs Part Two

More of the same ravens wrestling and teasing over the same snowball …

 

I hope you’ve enjoyed this little series of favourites.

If you want to spend a whole evening watching ravens, plus crows making sounds like dogs, cats and backing up trucks and more, you can check out my YouTube channel.

Stay tuned for more local and crow and raven and general urban nature news in the coming days.

 

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© junehunterimages, 2023. 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.