Becky

1. This section solved a mystery for me. A one-legged crow used to visit my yard regularly. I called him Bill, not knowing for sure that he was male, but statistically I was probably right. I met Bill after his foot had already fallen off and healed. He hopped around the yard and got along as well as any other crow. He was in a family of three: mate and helper perhaps? One year the family group had two offspring and the five of them would visit the yard daily for peanuts. I wondered how Bill had lost his foot, and I finally know. 2. I have most often seen crows cooperate, but I did witness some territory disputes between a nesting pair and some neighboring crows last summer. Lots of flying and darting at one another in the air. One of the crows, the mating male, I thought, had a ragged appearance and appeared to be missing some feathers as the summer went on.

I was feeding a family of crows at home. One of them had one leg. I'm not good at crow recognition, but I knew my one-legged crow, whom I called Bill. One day I was out for a walk in another part of town, and as I approached my car I saw crows in the parking lot. They let me approach fairly close without flying away, which was unusual. Then I saw Bill among them, and it all became clear. These were the crows I fed at home; they were out foraging, and they'd seen my car. The only problem was, I had no peanuts to give them! I frantically searched my bag and found some unsalted almonds I was saving for a snack, and left a handful on a rock for them. I didn't see if the crows accepted my offering of almonds or not. It wasn't the usual meal I left them. But the crows recognizing me and my car totally threw me - it was the first time I'd experienced this.