Susan
Forum Replies Created
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SusanParticipant1. I think I've seen "pre-roost" gatherings, near the shopping plaza in downtown E. Dennis, MA. I have noticed a lot of crows (maybe 30) gathering, calling, in certain large trees (deciduous) near the road and a riding outfit near the plaza. However I don't see the crows roosting on branches out in the open there when it gets dark. That's why I think they may go somewhere else. There are plenty of pine trees in that area as well. The plaza itself has some garbage containers behind it, plus is next to a fish restaurant, and a bakery, which may have interesting food scraps. 2. I'm very excited about it. I try to pull over if I'm in my car and observe.
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SusanParticipantI notice 20 - 30 birds (crows) foraging in peoples' yards up at the Cape (Cod) in the late summer, early fall. They were wary of people but easy to watch from the car by the curb. They fly down and back to usually borders of high pine trees. These kind of flocks are common on our part of the Cape. The other birds I notice on Cape Cod that form large flocks are a kind of swallow that form large swarming and swooping flocks around Labor Day weekend - they congregate for a short time - one or two days - then disappear.in reply to: Life in a Flock #637076
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SusanParticipantI suspect that the ravens are overall more suspicious and careful than the crows and seagulls in general since they are not- as pairs or parents -big on group socializing. The ones I watch in Iceland are very wary of humans, and strange food (they won't approach peanuts!) but love eggs, and scraps from the slaughterhouse. It takes a while to get them feeling somewhat safe about retrieving food - or approaching - and in Iceland they are the only corvid - no crows. Seagulls have greatly encroached on the urban territory and caused some problems for scrap, bird egg/young and garbage foraging for ravens, as well as seagulls patrolling the ravens' nesting area and being a threat until the young are rather large.in reply to: Home and Family Life #637075
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SusanParticipantI'm fascinated by crows here in NYC, where I can't watch ravens (yet!). I spend part of the year in Iceland where I've been observing a pair of urban ravens since 2013. I have followed them various years at different times of the year but always in the nesting season where they go through a lot of difficulties as their first nest is often destroyed by irritated janitors or landlords. Icelanders either love or hate ravens. But this pair has rebuilt and successfully raised young a second time - even when they were brooding and the eggs of the first nest were trashed. This year they rebuilt near the Parliament building, and their young are just fledging now, a good month after the other Icelandic ravens. This was off topic; re: crows - I'm hungry for info on corvid behaviour - I notice that crows here in NYC and MA- I don't yet have a family to watch - are in a much larger groups than the raven pairs, who chase their young off approx. 2 months after fledging.in reply to: Home and Family Life #637074
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SusanParticipantThat you have been following them for so many years! And the three tags - I thought that leg bands lasted forever. Aren't the wing tags - and I noticed some kind of antennae on their backs in one shot - obtrusive or invasive in the crows' movements?in reply to: Crow Research Techniques #636640
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SusanParticipantThat's interesting! Where are you seeing them? I always see ravens - in Reykjavik - and in the countryside - and in NYC - as single or pairs. Never flocks, but I've seen young ravens in a flock in the winter (a friend feeds them!). I always assume a flock is crows - I often see a flock feeding on someone's lawn, or mobbing each other over food items on the building roof across from me in NYC.in reply to: Crow Not Crow #636627
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SusanParticipantI read that there are ravens in NJ now. I have seen them in NYC (as have other people) and they do "krunk" and when they fly they are usually high - hawk level - and that's how I know they are ravens as they size is comparable to a red-tailed hawk. Crows are smaller and they hang in gangs.in reply to: Crow Not Crow #636624
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SusanParticipantI can't tell the difference between the common crow and the fish crow - I see both around the beach but don't know which is which or what sound the fish crow might make.in reply to: Crow Not Crow #636622
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SusanParticipantAgreed re: sound of fledglings - I've never heard crow fledglings, but the raven chicks, I've heard a lot - and fledglings make a very loud begging cry, like crow caws but coninuous, similar in mien to other begging baby birds. The adult ravens make cronks but I've heard them make some other rattling sounds, soft krunks, and alarm cronks. Crows I identify by caws, and they are more apt to make sounds than the adult ravens.in reply to: Crow Not Crow #636621
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SusanParticipantI observe ravens in Iceland (work there) where there the only corvid is the raven. So it's easy for me there - but here in NYC and in MA where I am a residet, I have trouble. I have spotted ravens in the city, and they are huge - I compare them with hawks for size, as they are usually about the same distance away as a hawk (far), fly in pairs, land on top of high buildings, and I've even been able to catch the "wedge-shaped" tail in a photo. There are a lot of crows in NYC and at the Cape (Cod/MA) common crows and fish crows. They are noisy and in small flocks, rarely alone. The ravens, if they call, are distinctive in their croak.in reply to: Crow Not Crow #636620