james

Many of my coworkers and friends are either indifferent to crows, or find them a nuisance, or lastly (a small percentage) see them as a bad omen of some kind. Another small percentage of friends like them, with one or two really loving them like me. As far as the public at large, they seem ambivalent except for the odd person i see feeding them, as i like to do. I am in an urban area, but am within short distance of a very rural area .  The urban birds here definitely seem to eat many poorly nutritious foods. In fact, many groups commute daily from their roosts directy to commercial plazas where they linger alll day near parking lots, dumpsters, and drive throughs. the rural area crows gather in both large and small groups as they forage in farm fields, forests, and other green lands. They are less inclined to come up when i offer almonds or cashews than their urban counterparts. ultimately, i dont concern myself too much with what others think of them, although i do try to educate people gently about how magnificent crows are, when i can. I love crows and thats good enough for me.

i have a group of crows that i regularly visit.  They have gotten to know me the last 3 years, and now recognize me no matter what i wear, and come flying and cawing from far away when i arrive. I think thats pretty clever. i feed them cashews, and sometimes one will fall between cracks on the rocky part of the beach.  Some of them just keep waiting for another, but once in a while they will carefully lift and remove several rocks to get to the cashew down below. sometimes, i will place a cashew under a shell or rock and walk away.  Although not all of them realize its there, some of them will carefully lift the rock or shell and claim their prize . a couple of  times, i spotted an eagle standing on the sand in the area where my beach crow friends usually hang out.  And while sometimes the group will sound the alarm, on two occasions i watched as a lone crow carefully approached the eagle. Pausing every so often. Until it was within inches, then the crow would nip and pull the eagle's tail feathers, causng it to flap its wings out a bit and look around. The crow would hop back, but only a foot or two, then would do it again. One of those times, the crow then simply started walking and foraging right near the eagle as though it wasnt there.  This seemed intelligent and playful to me, because the crow obviously recognized that the eagle was a lethal danger, but he sort of did a risk assessment based on the eagles responses and stayed in the area anyway.

The wing tags and the radio wires on their backs. They look uncomfortable for the crows.  But i know the researchers care about their birds and so im sure it must not bother them too much. also i did not know that crows got white feathers when they got older. Even though there is probably a measureof academic detachment, it must be sad for the researchers when a crow disappears and never comes back. I would be sad after spending so much time with them

First off, this is a wonderful  course. I am so thankful to be able to take it. 1. i would explain that that is a common misconception that i had also believed, but that it was untrue. In fact, crows account for a rather small portion of egg/nestling predation 2 . i have seen american crows almost everywhere in the province of bc.  I dont know if ive seen a crows nest but ive seen and heard many fledglings 3. where i live, there are both crows and ravens. I am confident in distinguishing one from another.    I have found that crows are far more sociable with each other in large groups, and (at least the population at my nearby beach) are more inclined to come closer to humans and investigate them. 4. I think many foraging creatures would benefit from crows around as they seem to hide and stockpile enormous amounts of food! Lots of which im sure is found and consumed by other birds and animals. Crows also provide great security for other birds when hawks, eagles , or owls are around. In my experience, they landmark and swoop/scold the predators usually until the predator opts to fly away. Then the crows tend to follow them for a good distance until satisfied theyre safely away. I just love crows.