Hyper-Local Crow News

November 26, 2023November 25, 2023 / The Urban Nature Enthusiast / 4 Comments

Marvin and Mavis have been our “backyard” crows since 2017.

Whenever I’d go out onto the back deck, I’d know that any crow waiting out there or on the neighbour’s roof would be one of them.

Marvin and Mavis (AKA Judgemental Crows) 2017

Don’t worry, they’re still fine!

Plus, Lucky, their 2022 fledgling, is still with them. I see them every day, and all three look tip top.

It’s hard to tell Marvin and Mavis apart at the moment, but Lucky is usually busy and curiou, checking out roof fittings, stray bits of plastic and twigs. Her parents are generally more focussed on “grown-up” crow pursuits like allo-preening, finding edible items and feuding with the new neighbours.

Those neighbours are the reason we don’t see Marvin and Mavis in the yard as often these days.

The Newbies

This pair arrived last winter, nested in the tree across the alley from our garden in the summer and naturally claimed our backyard as theirs. It IS very close to their nesting tree, and years of construction and tree loss in the neighbourhood forced M&M a bit further away.

Marvin and Mavis, in two previous nesting seasons, built nests in the same tree, but were raided by raccoons there so often that they gave up on it.

I’m not sure how “The New Crows” fared with the raccoons, but it seems they’re here to stay — so this week, I gave up mentally calling them “the new ones” and named them — Nancy and Norman.

Marvin and Mavis still visit the garden from time to time — caws for cawing, extreme feather-fluffing and occasional outraged dive-bombing between the families.

But mostly, it’s the cawing.

Team Marvin and Mavis have a clear edge on this front — for two reasons.

First: aptitude. These two have long been experts in the Wall Of Sound technique.

In fact, I wrote about their vocal prowess way back in 2018 in a post titled, you guessed it, Wall of Sound. The two of them have always had the ability to meld their voices into a what sounds like a full-on murder.

Secondly, with the addition of Lucky, they’re well on the way to being powerhouse vocal trio with the ability (at least in their own minds) to move mountains with the power of sound.

Here’s the whole family running through some warm-up exercises the other day …

Lucky’s still in training, and I recently had the chance to observe just how serious the tuition regimen is.

It was a classic two family face-off.

Marvin, Mavis and Lucky had the height advantage in the tree in front of the house. Watch the crow on the right carefully …

Lucky is in the middle, partly obscured by the branch, but you can see one of her parents giving her a good hard prod every time she even thinks about taking a break from her vocal efforts.

A proud family tradition needs to be upheld — and Norman and Nancy need to be reminded of who is in charge here — so no time for slacking!

Norman and Nancy, however, seem relatively unimpressed — seen here taking a few moments to compose a thoughtful (and loud) response.

I’m hoping that, over the quieter winter months, we might reach some sort of detente, allowing both families to stick around with slightly less racket.

I look forward to keeping up with my old crowquaintances AND getting to know Norma and Nancy better.

Wake-Up Call

August 20, 2023August 20, 2023 / The Urban Nature Enthusiast / 7 Comments

It’s smoky out there (though nothing near as bad as the air quality closer to the wildfires in other parts of BC and the Northwest Territories) so I’m staying inside making a second blog post for the day.

These are photos taken this morning as the red, smoky sun rose over East Vancouver. In capturing these moments I was imagining a message from the crows.

Yet another message to wake up — to a new day; to the undeniable reality of climate change; to the need to make changes now.

That’s already too many words from me, so here are the crows …

I sometimes feel a bit immobilized by hopelessness, but the crows are not impressed by my ennui.

Get off your butt, say the crows, so here are a few ideas for action (mostly for myself.)

Ten tips from David Suzuki Foundation on fighting climate change
Donate to charities helping the environment
Put a water bowl out to help your local birds and wildlife (Bongo specifically told me to add that one)
Donate to the Red Cross BC Fires Appeal
Write a letter to a politician about the need to make changes now, not later (I’m going to aim for one letter a week.)

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Bongo The Busker

April 30, 2023April 29, 2023 / The Urban Nature Enthusiast / 23 Comments

Since my old friend Mabel disappeared a year ago, her corner and the prized “ring of authority” have been inherited by a new pair of crows, Bongo and his mate, Bella.

Bella is currently keeping a low profile while sitting on the nest.

Bongo, it transpires, is a musical performer — a local vocal virtuoso.

It was around this time last year when he first stopped me in my tracks. Perhaps he felt that, since he wasn’t Mabel, he was going to have to go the extra mile to get my attention …

I’ve been trying to figure out what prompts Bongo’s vocal performances.

Things I have noticed:

they are certainly not a daily occurrence
they seem to be saved for the spring nesting season
it often seems to be raining (but that could be more to do with nesting season occurring in typically wet spring Vancouver weather)

Here is one recent and especially impassioned rendition …

In this video there are calls from other crows that he pauses to listen to.

On most other occasions he waits for a quiet moment and seems to be putting on a concert especially for me.

It could be that he has mistaken me for a visiting impresario, and is hoping for a Broadway breakthrough. More likely — he’s cleverly deduced that a short recitation results in a few more peanuts.

He certainly puts a lot of effort into his performances — tail and wings outspread like a maestro fanning out his tailcoat for dramatic impact. A deep ceremonial bow is also part of the performance.

What does it all mean? Is he mimicking something, or is he interpreting the world through song? Is he a crow poet … a bird bard?

Each time I hear him I come up with new ideas.

Is he doing his impression of:

the back-up beeping of heavy machinery?
the distant “boing” of a dinner gong? (not that this is really a “dinner gong” sort of neighbourhood …)
a cat’s plaintive miaowing?

Or is he simply expressing his feelings with a heartfelt “wow” at all the wonders of the world?

When I’ve posted his calls on social media, a lot of people fall squarely into the “sounds just like a cat” camp. Somehow I’m not quite convinced, as Bongo’s “bongs” don’t sound quite like our cat, Edgar, whose miaows are a considerably more sustained and dramatic.

But that might just be Edgar.

The following video of White Wing (also captured during nesting season) has her making a series of short “barks” followed by a much more convincing, soulful cat and Edgar-like miaow/yowl.

Another thing to note about the Songs of Bongo are that, although soft sounding, they travel far amid the other chaotic city sounds. Rather like a raven, Bongo has excellent projection.

Anyway, Bongo has become one of my favourite crows — and not just because of his troubadour skills. He’s an engaging model and is being a conscientious dad by staying close to his corner and keeping an eye on Bella and the nest.

Bongo is the subject of one of my latest print images, Rust and Crow, in which he manages to look all at once fierce, elegant and (like his forbear Mabel) ever so slightly frazzled — a combination that only crows seem able to pull off perfectly.