Bongo and Bella’s Announcement

June 1, 2023May 31, 2023 / The Urban Nature Enthusiast / 8 Comments

Mr. Bongo Crow and Ms. Bella Crow are proud to announce that they have fledglings!

Quite a few, it turns out …

I heard some baby burbling coming from the trees on the morning walk earlier this week, but it wasn’t until lunchtime that I spotted the first one.

There is honestly nothing I find more adorable than the grumpy little face of a newly fledged crow — those blue eyes and the down-turned little pink mouth edges.

Baby, you may notice, was having a bit of a hard time swallowing the peanut bits that mum or dad had just crammed into that little pink beak.

There was more soft quacking coming from the upper tree branches, so I assumed there was at least one more up there.

That evening we were amazed to see one of the youngsters actually doing a bit of rudimentary flapping from tree to tree. The flying proficiency leads me to believe that Bongo and Bella have been doing a top notch job of keeping their little family well hidden and protected for at least a week to get them to this “off the ground” state.

You can see from the view of a pop-up wing (below), that they’re still not fully developed. Early flying efforts are a challenging combination of mechanical issues and inexperience!

The last thing we saw before going home that night was either Bongo on Bella on sentinel duty atop the school’s flagpole — scouring the 360 degree horizon for potential danger...

First-fledgling time is a sort of Christmas-Morning-With-High- Anxiety experience for me, ridiculous as that may be. Couldn’t get to sleep the next night and I was awake and out of the house before 6 am.

In spite of wandering their block for a while, I saw only mom and dad — still on guard duty.

Bongo and Bella came down for peanuts, but didn’t take them to feed babies breakfast — just stashed them for later use.

The lunchtime walk was looking similarly fledgling-free until I decided to make one more pass (poor Geordie) and heard a little quack. Looked up and spotted baby number one.

I could see another shape up there and moved around to get a view of what I thought would be baby number two. Surprise, surprise — TWO more ridiculously cute little figures perched together!

Look at those pristine little feet. It must feel good to have a little toe stretch while learning how to cling on to branches — an important new skill.

Fledgling one having a bit of a wing stretch …

Fledglings two and three, with three doing some more toe flexing …

I spent quite a while admiring the three of them until my neck got too kinked from pointing the camera straight up. All the while, proud dad Bongo kept me company down below.

He even made the official birth-bong announcement …

Yes, that WAS four bongs.

There was indeed a fourth fledging, but he or she didn’t make it. I found a detached immature crow wing on the ground yesterday, so the unlucky one must have fallen victim to a raccoon or cat.

The surviving three are far from out of the woods. Only 50% of crow fledglings survive to the end of their first year and I suspect that number might be higher given the extra challenges presented by the hot dry summers of recent years.

Bongo and Bella are not registered for baby gifts, but they did have a couple of small requests in lieu:

Please put water out so that parent birds can soak food for the fledglings, and those still in the nest, to keep them hydrated. It’s only May and already, here in usually wet Vancouver, there is no trace of puddle water and the dirt is too packed to dig up worms. Keep changing the water throughout the day and keep the bowl clean to stop the spread of diseases.
If you must have an outdoor cat, please keep him/her indoors during fledgling season. To you, your cat is “Fluffy Pudding-kins.” To crow (and all bird) parents he or she is “Harbinger of Doom/Destroyer of Worlds.”

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White Wing Crow Goes Woof

May 21, 2023May 21, 2023 / The Urban Nature Enthusiast / 9 Comments

I heard the softest begging sounds of baby crows coming from White Wing’s nest this week — the first of the year! The Wings are always quick out of the nesting gate, and they seem to be in the lead again this spring.

White Wing disappeared as usual in April to go and sit on the nest and has been popping out more frequently over the last couple of weeks since the eggs hatched.

She usually performs a vigorous stretching routine when she emerges, as I imagine it’s getting ever more cramped in there as the nestlings grow.

The first time I caught the hint of crow baby gurgles, White Wing was watching me and surprised me with one of her rare “woof” calls …

… followed by another stretch.

The only other time I’ve heard her make the “woof” (with a soulful cat finale on that occasion) was a couple of years ago at about this time of year.
I wonder if it’s a special call to the hatchings — or perhaps she’s making a novel sound to divert the easily distractible human (squirrel!!!) from the tell-tale little quorking sounds emanating from the nest.

Or perhaps she’s just been whiling away the long hours sitting on the eggs working on some new “songs.”

The Wings are occasionally seen out of the nest together now — only for a brief few moments and then back to feed the hungry beaks …

You can see and hear White Wing’s woof-meow call on my YouTube channel HERE >>

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Crow Mother’s Day

May 12, 2023May 12, 2023 / The Urban Nature Enthusiast / 1 Comment

I wonder if there is any advertising within the crow world on the subject of the perfect gift for Crow Mother’s Day …? I’m fairly sure that roses and chocolates wouldn’t make the list — though a spa visit and brunch certainly wouldn’t go amiss.

It’s going to be up to Dad to arrange the festivities, of course, as the kids are still in egg form, or very newly hatched. No age to be making significant gift-giving decisions, anyway.

So, to help out the crow dads, let’s think of what a crow mom might really appreciate this weekend.

Most of the female crows are either still sitting full-time on the nest to incubate the eggs, or are just beginning to re-emerge into the wider world — stretching and shaking out the weeks of close-quarters confinement.

White Wing, newly emerged from the nest

A yoga retreat would be a nice idea, but it’s going to be months before the mother crows, or the fathers for that matter, will really have more than a minute or two to call their own.

An exhausting summer lies ahead, if all goes well.

Mabel takes that small, almost unconscious step away from one of her demanding fledglings one summer a few years ago.

Meanwhile, the biggest task on the crow mother’s mind is keeping newly hatched babies alive so they can become demanding teenagers. This involves constant feeding, so she’s out and about with dad in search of food.

Another important task is keeping the nest clean. No potties or Pampers for these parents — instead the babies come with a built-in solution — the fecal sac.

I think you can guess how these work …

They’re a brilliant bit of Nature’s design, with the slight snag being that the little sacs are fragile and prone to breaking in transit. This is why, at this time of year, you might see some white-beaked crow parents.

A close look at White Wing’s beak show evidence of nest cleaning duties

Bongo’s mate, Bella, just emerged from the nest this week and looks, I think, the epitome of someone in need of Mother’s Day pampering.

Luckily papa Bongo is on the job!

Such a thoughtful gift …

Already this morning I saw him collecting some bits of wood chips — presumably to refurbish the nest lining and help with the clean up.

And, of course, Bongo’s greatest gift is his music …

If you’re thinking of what YOU could offer your local crow mothers, fathers — all wildlife, in fact — this weekend, I’d suggest a nice bowl of cool, clean water.
Here in the Pacific Northwest we’re expecting temperatures 15 degrees above normal and no rain, so a reliable water supply will definitely be the bird equivalent of a luxury spa!