Vancouver birds

Happy Crowsgiving

/ The Urban Nature Enthusiast / 1 Comment

With apologies to readers of my blog who may be wondering where I’ve been for the past few weeks, here is a very short Crowsgiving greeting.

I have been going on many long crow walks, and there is so much news for the crow-verse, it’s hard to know where to start relaying it all.

But for now, on this Canadian Thanksgiving, here is a little round-up of the past week or so with some of the local crows.

One of the most joyful things this year has been the number of crow fledglings making it through their risky first summer — many more than I’ve seen over the past few years. Several youngsters seem to be sticking with Mom and Dad for the fall.

Lucky II is Marvin and Mavis’s fledgling from this spring and seems set to stick around, replacing Lucky I, who stayed with his parents for three years before moving on to start his own family this year. Lucky II is already a forceful personality!

Barry and Beryl, who live on the street with lots of berries, have Baby Berry and Fearless Fred (and his more conservative mate, Florence) have both of their fledglings with them, learning Fred’s fearless ways.

Crow harvest festival has been in full swing, with nuts being hauled out of trees and the road being used as a nutcracker. If dropping their bounty from a height doesn’t work, the crows wait for cars to run over them and then race in to scoop up the fragments — hopefully before the squirrels or other crows get their first.

Now that the nuts are almost all gone, it will be time to move up the street to harvest the berries on the dogwood trees. After that, it will be Persimmon-fest, when the big orange fruit reaches bird-snacking perfection in November. The persimmons are a big favourite with the starlings, but the crows manage to get their share, of course.

I hope your Thanksgiving is sociable and bountiful too!

Lucky II on bin day — the crows’ weekly fun fest!

 

 

© junehunterimages, 2025. 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.

 

Whither The Walkers?

/ The Urban Nature Enthusiast / 3 Comments

I’m often asked how the Walkers are doing, so it’s time for an update.

Mr. Walker  — as shown in City Crow Stories

The Walkers are featured in my City Crow Stories book — which is about to be reissued with some new chapters.

Over the years, Mr. Walker was always the focus of my blog posts; he was by far the bolder of the pair, named for his habit of walking fearlessly beside me and the dog.

Wanda, blind in one eye for the whole time I’ve known her, was always waiting in the background, timid and a bit clumsy in her flying technique. If there was a sudden crashing about in the branches, it was usually Wanda, failing to nail the landing again.

This family dynamic underwent a dramatic change in the spring of 2023 when Mr. Walker suffered a serious eye injury.

For a while, it looked as if he would not survive, sitting motionless on high tree branches for hours at a time. It was nesting season, however, so Wanda somehow chivvied him along enough for them to complete the nest and fledge three babies. Tragically, all three were infected with avian pox. As soon as they fledged, Mr. Walker vanished and Wanda spent a desperate week or two trying to defend and care for them on her own before she and the fledglings also disappeared.

The last of the Walker fledglings to leave the nest, spring 2023

I assumed that Mr. Walker had succumbed to his eye injury and the fledglings to their illness. Wanda’s whereabouts remained a mystery. Had she worked herself into an early grave or just gone off for a long rest somewhere?

Spring 2024 brought a Walker surprise — the reappearance of both Mr Walker and Wanda back on “their” block. It was wonderful to see them again after their mysterious winter absence but, sadly, Mr. W was still far from his old self.

Wanda, who had always been the timid one of the pair, took up all the slack, boldness-wise, morphing from wallflower to warrior queen.

This is not the first time I’ve seen a change in crow family circumstances result in a personality transformation. When I first met George and Mabel, George was the swashbuckler of the family; but when he lost the top part of his beak Mabel stepped up, accessed her inner Boudica, and became the fierce protector of family and territory.

From wallflower to warrior queen

I’d hoped to see them build another nest, but Mr. W seemed too ill to put in all that work. As the hot, dry summer went on, it seemed enough for the two of them to take care of each other.

The video below shows the last time I saw them together — Wanda preening her beloved Mr. W as he appears to drift off into a blissful late summer nap.

 

After that day they both vanished again.

As another whole Walker-less winter went by,  I assumed that we had reached the end of their family saga.

There is, however, at least one more chapter — to be revealed in tomorrow’s post.

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Mr Walker’s Bad Monday

/ The Urban Nature Enthusiast / 14 Comments

There’s a lot of local crow news right now (Wings, Bongo, P.Earl) but unfortunate circumstances bring me back to the Walkers today.

I saw the Walkers on the weekend and all seemed totally fine, if a little soggy.

This morning I saw Mr. Walker, but he wasn’t walking. He did fly over to me and then I saw his eye …

I tried to convince myself I’d got mixed up and this was Wanda, who IS blind in one eye — but I knew it was Mr W and they eye injury looked quite different from Wanda’s. Also, the other eye.

Wanda in the cherry tree last week

I put out a call for help from bird rehabbers and those with more knowledge than me on social media and received lots and lots of great suggestions. I also got in touch with our local wildlife rescue association, sending photos, and they suggested we take a wait and see approach.

I’m sincerely hoping it’s just a minor injury and he’ll recover without me having to attempt to get him into a box. I have zero crow trapping experience and I fear he is likely smarter than me.

Besides which, it would be a terrible time to take him away as Wanda is already, as I mentioned in the last post, making begging sounds and showing other signs that she’s either laid eggs or is about to, and will be 100% dependent on Mr Walker for food in the nest for awhile.

I went for a second visit this afternoon and saw the Walkers together at our usual meeting tree.

Mr Walker on the lower branch

I did notice in one of the photos I took this afternoon that his eye was open a little, which seemed like a big improvement, so fingers crossed it looks better and not worse tomorrow. I’ll keep you posted.

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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