Success At Last!

June 25, 2026June 24, 2026 / The Urban Nature Enthusiast / 4 Comments

Having watched Norm and Nancy work so hard at the nesting game, spring after spring, with not a single fledgling to show for it, I’ve been thrilled to see them now parenting two little ones.

Now, admittedly, they may be wondering what the heck they signed up for—a common phenomenon among first-time parents.

Mum, mum, mum …!

I have been on the look out for fledglings in Norman and Nancy’s territory for weeks. Finally, in early June, I caught sight of one!

Given that Norman and Nancy live right beside our house AND that I had been fledgling-seeking for so long , it’s pretty remarkable how under-wraps they managed to keep this one.

And, as it turns out, there were two of them! Both baby crows had grey eyes by the time I spotted them, rather than the blue of a brand new fledgling. This means that Norman and Nancy managed to keep them very well hidden and safe for at least a couple of weeks before they made any kind of public debut.

Norman with the two babies

I had been looking forward to writing this happy post, but yesterday things took a turn.
I got a message from our neighbours to say that a crow had flown into their window and was unconscious. By the time I rushed over, the neighbour had approached the baby with a view to rescue, but the fledgling woke up and flew off.

I spent the rest of yesterday and all of today trying to see if little window-crasher had survived or not. It’s been difficult, as it’s so hot the crows are keeping the babies quiet and hidden up in the cooler tree canopies.

Early this morning my heart sank when I saw Norman, Nancy and a single fledgling up on the Hydro pole at the end of the lane. (Note that, at 7am, it’s already warm enough for the crows to have their beaks open to cool down.)

I kept wandering back to the same area for half an hour or so because I was almost sure I heard another fledgling in a nearby tree. I’ve been back a few times now and can say, with relative confidence, that there are still two fledglings. I haven’t managed to get a photo of them both together, but I have seen two at once and both seem relatively (given the heat) chipper.

Hopefully Crasher has learned a valuable lesson that he or she will carry into the future.

Stay safe, little ones!

© junehunterimages, 2026. 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.

Crow Parenting, Summer 2022, Part 4

August 26, 2022August 25, 2022 / The Urban Nature Enthusiast / 14 Comments

Removing The Training Wheels

Just look at how grown up and fully crow-like he is already!

It’s been about twelve weeks since I first saw Lucky out of the nest, and he’s come such a long way since those first helpless days.

The first time I saw Lucky, back on June 11

Now that he’s going to the mix and mingle at the roost every night, I can’t help thinking he must be starting to feel the temptation to fly off to see the world with some fellow teen crows.

On Monday and Tuesday of this week I didn’t see or hear him at all, so I was beginning to think that was that for our little family of three.

Marvin and Mavis having a quiet morning to themselves

But no — it seems he’s not quite ready to ditch those training wheels yet. As grown up as he’s looking now, he (or she, just a guess at this point) is wise enough to know he’s still safer when mom and dad have his back.

In the photo below, Lucky looks just like a fully independent crow coming for snacks, but further investigation reveals a watchful mom, waiting in the wings in case of emergency.

I think she’s also making sure he’s following all the protocols he’s been taught over the past few weeks:

look left, look right, look up, look down, look left again and right again and up again, etc.before taking a moment to grab a snack … and repeat
grab the highest value snack items first in case this is your only chance
dunk snacks in water to add hydration boost
pack beak and gullet with maximum efficiency before take off

Nice work, but remember, look left, right, up …

Efficient snack packing starts with careful planning

I noticed that the constant begging (feed me, feed me, feed me) sounds that filled the air all summer have recently ceased.

The photo below, taken on August 18, was the last time I witnessed Lucky begging from his parents — and you can see the somewhat cynical and unobliging look he’s receiving in response.

He still calls for his parents, but it’s more of an “I’m here. Are you there?” type of communication.

From a distance, Lucky looks just like a grown up crow.

His eyes are no longer grey or blue — they’re now close to the same brown as an adult crow.

The pink gape at the side of his mouth is now quite subtle when his beak’s closed.

Still goofy, but then aren’t all crows, regardless of maturity?

However, as soon as he opens his mouth, especially when the sun hits it, that pink gape lights up like a stained glass window!

His mouth HAS been open a lot this week — not for begging purposes, but for keeping cool in the ongoing hot weather.

Aside from expelling heat via the open beak, he also sits with his wings held out from his body to let the heat out that way too, and catch any hint of a cooling breeze — just like mom and dad showed him.

I have so many photographs of Lucky now — partly because he’s so darn photogenic and partly because there are weirdly few other bird models around at the moment. That’s another, rather anxious, story for another day.

Suffice to say, at this point I have so many pictures of Lucky, he could easily have a calendar all to himself.

I have to stop and watch and photograph every time I spot him because I can’t shake the feeling that each time might be the last.

Of course, I’d be so thrilled if Lucky turned out to be one of those fledglings that sticks with mom and dad to help out and learn the ropes of nesting next year, but I can hardly bring myself to hope for that much.

Any day now he could decide to take off to complete his crow-ducation at a faraway institute of corvid higher learning.

I just hope he’ll remember to look left, right, up, down etc and to always take the good bits first.

For more Lucky:

© 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.

Crow Parenting, Summer 2022 Part 3

August 12, 2022August 25, 2022 / The Urban Nature Enthusiast / 5 Comments

Family life with a pre-teen. I think I remember those days myself.

One minute they’re all grown up and don’t need their parents AT ALL, next — they just need a snuggle and some comfort food.

At least, when I was raising my kids, I didn’t have moulting to deal with as well.

A moulting crow is a cranky crow, and the whole family is starting that process now.

At least the fledgling can entertain himself with his own escaping feathers

At the same time, Marvin and Mavis are dealing with a pre-teen (Lucky) who is going through the two steps forward, three steps back process of learning to feed himself.

Lucky can definitely come and get his own peanuts from our deck. He has demonstrated prowess (well, competence, at least) in this field.

At first he’d just get one peanut and then wonder what exactly to do with it, but now he’s on to the advanced level of stuffing his gullet to capacity before flying away and hiding some for later, just like mom and dad do.

Other advanced skills include perching on the water bowl and dipping snacks to moisten them.

For most of the day, the family is off on adventures around the neighbourhood, while Marvin and Mavis are presumably teaching Lucky the skills needed to grab more “in the wild” food.

Yet several times a day I still hear Lucky making his begging calls, and every once in a while see one of the parents wavering in their determination to get him self sufficient by stuffing a snack into his waiting beak.

More often the scenario plays out like this …

… and even …