Young Syd and Family

May 8, 2026May 7, 2026 / The Urban Nature Enthusiast / 1 Comment

Young Syd represents the newest generation in the Earl and Echo dynasty. She’s one of several crows born in this area last spring who’ve stayed over winter, hanging out with their extended family and learning from their elders.

Earl and Echo are venerable crows, progenitors to many local crow characters. Their offspring include Dennis (born in 2022) and his mate, Dolly, who live just to the west of them, and Sneezy (born in 2023) and his mate, Sue, who moved into a vacancy just east of Earl and Echo last spring.

Sneezy and Sue successfully raised a couple of fledglings, one of them being Syd.

Earl and Echo

Sneezy, Sue and Syd — Summer 2025

Last summer, there were a lot of fledglings in the neighbourhood, especially between Earl and Echo and their kids. It was a bit hard to tell exactly which babies belonged to which parents, as Dennis and Sneezy’s fledglings would wander into Earl and Echo’s block, where they seemed quite welcome.

Crows are usually pretty fierce about guarding their territory against all other crows, but it seems that special dispensation is given for close relatives — or perhaps Earl and Echo are just particularly doting grandparents.

Young Syd (back) hanging out with Earl and Echo during late summer moulting season

By winter, most of the new generation of Earl and Echo descendants had moved on — except for Syd.

You may remember the young crow I videoed catching snowdrops earlier this year. That was our Syd.

Like most youngsters, Syd is an energetic and curious young bird. She’s not nearly as driven as Lou with his relentless compulsion to pick up and examine just about every object that crosses his path, but she has her own foibles.

One of these is the fondness for looking behind her from a low angle. You’ll notice she’s in the same pose in the early photo of her with her parents.

Young crow in close up, head bent low and facing. backwards looking at the world from under their tail.

Upside Down (available as a print)

Syd doesn’t have any noticeably distinguishing features, except for a beak that seems to me to be slightly slimmer and narrower than average with an especially pronounced “V” in her nasal bristles.

(Note: I don’t know if Syd is male or female yet, but I’m opting to call her “her” for now.)

You can see a definite family resemblance, in attitude at least, between Syd and her grandpa.

Tenacious Earl (available as a print)

Young Syd (available as a print)

You can see that Syd’s extended family is raising her to be just as wise and tenacious as her forebears.

Lou’s Pastimes

April 12, 2026April 12, 2026 / The Urban Nature Enthusiast / 7 Comments

Most of the adult crows are currently immersed in all things nest-related. Younger crows, like Lou, who have remained with their parents for a year or two, are often designated “nest helpers.”

Lou’s nest-helping forté seems to be hanging out on the eastern territorial border, keeping an eye out for Norman and Nancy (the neighbouring crows) and making sure they don’t get too close to said border.

Young crow standing with head and neck extended up in a very alert posture

Of course, Norman and Nancy are pretty busy with their own nesting efforts, so this leaves Lou with lots of time on his hands/feet. Luckily, he has many, many interests to keep himself occupied while Mom and Dad (Mavis and Marvin) are busy elsewhere.

First of all, there’s just hanging about …

Young crow hanging upside down from a branch, holding one with one foot

Sliding on bin lids …

Young crow slipping and sliding on a plastic garbage can lid, wings out

Thinking deep thoughts and gaining new perspectives …

Young crow bent over with head looking back between their legs

Young Lou the crow stands contemplatively in front of a storm drain cover Photography by June Hunter ©junehunterimages2026

Lou is never idle. He’s constantly on the move, which is probably good for his personal security, although challenging for his paparazzi.

Lou’s biggest enthusiasm is for finding things. You name it, he’s found it.
I showed him discovering coins, pebbles, berries, moss and mice in my earlier post about Lou, but that was just the beginning of his street-combing career.

He’s since found a lens from a pair of sunglasses …

The black box from a tiny aircraft … ?

A fancy hair clip …

A nice chunky eraser …

A whole delicious apple …

Of course, I only watch Lou for a few minutes a day, so I can only imagine what else he’s unearthed when I’m not around!

Apart from finding, he’s also very proficient at hiding treasures …

He did take a few moments out of his very busy schedule the other day to land on a branch beside me and make a short but eloquent speech.

While his parents are busy, they’re obviously keeping an eye on Lou and sweep by to check on him from time to time. Earlier this week, there was something alarming on the horizon …

Lou didn’t even have time to call the alarm before Dad arrived on the scene.

Nest Helper Notes:

I sometimes wonder how useful these yearly crow “helpers” actually are.
Helpfulness probably varies between individual young crows, but I know that, during the three years that Marvin and Mavis had their previous “assistant”, Lucky, with them, they had no new fledglings. It was only when Lucky left them last spring that they raised a new pair of fledglings, one of which is Lou.

I once overheard one of the volunteers at the Riefel Bird Sanctuary remark that they were pleased to see that the offspring of the sanctuary’s resident Sandhill Crane pair had moved on that spring, because the young one sticking around for a couple of years had impeded them in their breeding/nesting efforts. At the time, I wondered if that was also true of crow families, in certain cases

Atmospheric Crows

March 22, 2026 / The Urban Nature Enthusiast / 4 Comments

The torrential rain we experienced on our little Sea to Sky vacation continued to pour down once we arrived home. Meteorologists now refer to these super-wet weather patterns as atmospheric rivers.

It felt, last week, as if I was spending about a third of my waking hours …

(a) getting the dog and me suitably dressed for rainswept walks (snorkels optional)

(b) peeling off layers of sodden rain gear, towel-drying the dog and my camera, and

On the plus side, it was a great opportunity to capture some Atmospheric Crows.
There is just something about a wet crow …

Their reaction to the weather can give us small clues into their individual crow personalities. The well-soaked and rather indignant-looking bird above is Betty, one of Bill’s fledglings from last year. She’s just getting used to the business of existing in range of a fire hose for several days in a row.

Bill in the rain

Below, looking relatively suave and sanguine in the same rain, is Dennis. A veteran of several winters, he seems to have developed a more philosophical attitude.

It seems to me that some crows are more prone to dishevelment than others. Dennis’s feathers are rarely disturbed by wind or rain. I’m not sure if this is due to sheer force of will or just lucky genetics.

There is often an even higher degree of judgment than normal in the looks that the crows give me on very wet days — as if they are considering whether I’m somehow to blame for the soggy state of the world.

I would like to speak to the management …

Somewhat alarmingly, the mild winter and early spring have the blossom trees a full month ahead of schedule. The plum trees, normally just starting to bloom now, are almost finished, and the cherry blossoms are fully out already.

Below is a crow out in two kinds of rain — some of it wet and falling from the sky, the rest, pink, and being washed out of the plum trees.