Hoorah for Earl and Echo

July 21, 2025 / The Urban Nature Enthusiast / 4 Comments

First of all, I apologize for the vast gap in blog posts. I see my last one was in April.
In my defence, it’s been a busy year of weddings, overseas visitors, publishing a revised book and the 2026 City Crow Calendar, and trying to keep up with the unexpected success of my needle-felted Party Crows.
In between those distractions and my thrice daily walks to walk the dog and check in on the local crows, there has been little time for actually writing things down.

This does not mean, of course, that the crow world has been devoid of exciting developments; on the contrary, it’s been an action-packed spring, with more new fledglings than we’ve seen in this neighbourhood for years.

So … lots to catch up on.

Let’s start with Earl and Echo.

I was beginning to worry about them: Earl with his increasingly bent leg and halting gait; Echo with her partial blindness; and the fact that both of them are getting on in crow years.

Earl enjoyed a small blast of social media fame a week or so ago due to the image below.

The image is the picture I took of Earl, puddle-plodgling, displayed on the LCD camera viewfinder, spangled with actual raindrops and captured by my iPhone camera. Unexpectedly, the raindrops magnified the screen’s grid pattern, and the rainbow raindrops were rendered in a grid pattern, somehow combining real-life and technology in one groovy image — which is now available as a print.

After the rainy days, I went to look for Earl and Echo, but failed to find them in their usual haunts. They had been nesting since March, but it seemed that the first nest had failed. Earl’s bent leg seemed to be troubling him more than usual lately, and I worried that old age had caught up with him. Perhaps the nest failure had been too much.

Sometimes I wonder if there’s a connection between my fondness for murder mysteries with convoluted plots and clues, and my obsession with the ongoing and vast puzzle that is the crow world. In both, there are clues to follow and put together but, whereas murder mysteries invariably offer a tidy ending where all the threads of information come together, crow watching is more of an ongoing saga. Sometimes crows you’ve known for years just vanish and you’re left to wonder what happened.

While an unresolved plot line would be unacceptable in a Midsommer Murders episode, they’re par for the course in the mysterious world of City Crow Stories.

I was mentally starting to say goodbye to Earl and Echo. After fruitlessly wandering their usual area this weekend, I decided to try a block further north as a last resort.

Bingo! It was Echo who found me, rather than the other way round, and she led me further down the street to the joyful sound of fledglings. I could hear at least two, and possibly three, crow babies tucked up in the tree canopy.

The babies still have blue eyes, so they’ve only been out of the nest for a few days. Earl and Echo must have soldiered on and built a second nest after that early failure.

Earl was nearby, cawing paternally at bicyclists whizzing by on the bike route.

Earl and Echo are old friends of mine, with two chapters to themselves in City Crow Stories 2025, so I’m just thrilled to see that they’ve got more life and parenting adventures ahead of them. These new babies join the ranks of other local crow characters like Sneezy and Dennis — all Earl and Echo descendants.

Earl experiencing a patriotic moment

Earl and Echo’s revised chapter in the 2025 edition of City Crow Stories

© 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 Part 2

April 11, 2025April 11, 2025 / The Urban Nature Enthusiast / Leave a comment

Last winter, I looked for the Walkers daily, but there was no sign of them anywhere.

A new pair of feisty crows settled in their territory, claiming the cherry tree that had been the central Walker HQ. I became resigned to never seeing either of the Walkers again.

Then, one day in March, I heard a crow caw that was just a tiny bit different from the rest. I thought to myself, “That sounds just like Wanda.”

I hadn’t realized until that moment that her “caw” had always been slightly different and more strident than the average crow, but when I heard it, a vision of Wanda’s face just popped into my mind.

The Wanda-like call came from the part of the neighbourhood that used to “belong” to White Wing and her mate. The Wings had been gone for a couple of years now, and new crows had settled there too, so I didn’t really think it COULD be Wanda.

Nevertheless, I walked over in that direction to investigate further.

The crow in question flew over and I immediately noticed the same gap in the wing feathers that Wanda had. Then she landed beside me and I saw she had a curved beak tip, just like Wanda.

It was, and is, Wanda.

She was accompanied by another, larger crow, who held back a little and, for a moment, I hoped it was Mr. Walker.

But it wasn’t him — this crow had no eye damage and lacked Mr. W’s slightly curved beak tip.

After a few days of grieving Mr. Walker’s absence, I started to observe the new companion and the dynamic between him and Wanda.

I started to call the new guy Walter.

Wanda and her new mate, Walter, on a fence photograph by June Hunter

Walter (left) and Wanda (right)

He would seem to be a younger crow. He appears to be a bit timid at first meeting, but I think he waits and watches because Wanda has appointed him head of security operations.

Wanda and her new companion on what used to White Wing’s local stop sign.

Wanda remains Boudica-like in her determination to claim and retain this new territory. She even ventures boldly back into her old territory, held now by Fearless Freddy and Freda.

This inevitably causes friction, but the newly audacious Wanda continues to push her luck. At the first sign of aggression from the Fearless family, Walter swoops in to intervene. Crisis over, it’s back to a good vantage point to resume his lookout and backup duties. Clearly, part of Wanda’s chutzpah is knowing that she has a reliable bodyguard.

Walter the Crow perched on a mossy tree photograph

Walter on lookout duty

While seeing Wanda without Mr. Walker makes me sad to realize that he is likely now off at the big Sky Roost with all the other late, great, local crows — George, Mabel, White Wing, Mr. Pants — it also makes me happy to see how she’s adapted to her circumstances.

It’s so interesting to see how she, like Mabel before her, protected and cared for her ailing mate for as long as she could, and then went on to build a new life for herself, remaining a dominant force in the crow-munity. I’m hoping that, like Mabel, Wanda will have some more good years, ruling the block with her new and younger partner.

Wanda’s metamorphosis makes me think about how complicated crow characters can be and how we really still know so little about them — and about so many of the other creatures and organisms we share this planet with.

I’ve now seen several major personality changes in crows as their life situations have changed. These changes are driven, no doubt, by a simple survival imperative, but impressive to see, nonetheless. From talking to neighbours (human*) I’ve also learned that crows can show different personality traits with different people, depending on the relationships they’ve built. For example, White Wing was always the boldest crow in the pair when I saw them, but another person told me that White Wing always held back when she saw them, and Mr. Wing was the fearless one.

In my years of watching crows I realize that, for every one thing I think I’ve figured out about them, there are a hundred more questions. Trying to find the answer to those is what gets me out of the morning every day, rain or shine and makes the walk around the same few urban blocks as exciting as a safari.

Wanda landing on a fire hydrant photograph by June Hunter

Wanda on the fire hydrant that was once White Wing’s favourite perch.

Below, a Wanda losing audio contest with a Northern Flicker.

* I am specifying here which type of neighbour for clarity. The other morning, I came home after the morning dog walk and my husband asked me how the walk had been. I said, “Great! I saw everybody.” It took us a couple of minutes to realize that he thought that “everybody” referred to people. Lol.

Ravens and Crows in the City

October 5, 2024 / The Urban Nature Enthusiast / 6 Comments

If only I could bring some real crows and ravens along to one of my Raven/Crow presentations; they speak more eloquently for themselves than I could ever do.

This morning they magically appeared to demonstrate many of the things I cover in my talks, in the calendar and here, on my blog.

The crows and I heard the raven at about the same time …

Following the crows, I headed west until I found the source.

For a while, there were only a few crows, mostly keeping a polite distance from the raven while she groomed her feathers in peace.

Gradually, more crows arrived and began to get a little more rowdy.

One crow in particular got up the courage to launch a sneak attack. I love how you can see them pecking the branch aggressively as they advance, building up their nerve for the mission.

The raven, however, was having none of that guff.

The crows got a little more rowdy.

A little dive-bombing ensued.

Still, the raven continued preening and looked quite relaxed.

I feel I should give a shoutout to my companion, Geordie, who had already been waiting patiently beside for me about half an hour at this point.

He accepts that crows are going to mean a slight delay and is always resigned to the fact that ravens are really going to throw a spanner in the walk works.

Philosophically, he lay down to pass the time in comfort.

Good boy!

Things looked to be taking a turn for our raven visitor when I heard a BIG gang of crows coming in from further away.

The raven made one call.

And there, seemingly from nowhere, her* mate arrived.

Note how the crows quickly gave up on the attack.

Two ravens; now that was something to reconsider.

The crows became much quieter and the ravens were clearly happy to be together again.

A few crows swooped half-heartedly by, but our raven couple were oblivious—immersed in affectionate allo-preening and beak play.

The original raven moved away from their mate, ever so politely, to take a poop.

This was their prelude to leaving, flying casually off somewhere to the north.

The crow crowd cawed in corvid victory.

They had ousted the enemy!

Although it seemed more like the barking dog and postie situation, where the house dog feels that their heroic efforts are 100% responsible for the delivery person’s daily retreat.

In less than an hour the obliging crows and ravens illustrated so many points from my talks:

the relative size of crows and ravens
the different calls of crows and ravens
the group action plan of crows
the pair bond between birds
how ravens communicate with their mates over long distances
the affectionate behaviour between raven couples (crows couples also allo-preen, but don’t engage in beak play)

I may have to update a couple of the slides in my presentation with some of these new videos!

* I guessed that the first raven was the female in this couple because of her preening and beak play behaviour. She’s also a lot smaller, which can be a clue — but not always.

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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.

The Urban Nature Enthusiast

Crow and raven photographer, celebrating nature, usually in an urban setting

Vancouver crows

Hoorah for Earl and Echo

Whither the Walkers Part 2

Ravens and Crows in the City