cmaack

The crows in my neighborhood appear healthy and I haven't seen any cases of missing feet or avian pox. West Nile may be having an impact since I've found two dead crows in the gardens of our retirement community. Did not examine them closely  - one was pretty decomposed. In 2020 there was a crow's nest in a tree near one of our tall buildings and I was able to watch the nesting pair come and go, start feeding, and eventually raise 3 young almost to the point of fledging. One appeared dead on the ground below the tree, young enough to still have growing feathers. Another later fell (or was pushed?) out of the nest and was on the ground, lying on one side with the wing underneath it in an unnatural position. The parents were very aggressive to humans approaching. It died not long afterwards. The last young managed to fledge and even get across the street to a street lamp, where it begged. The following day it was no longer there so I can only speculate. Many of the local crows ate bread scraps that someone was dumping in the parking lot nearby and I (also speculating) think the parents of the nest I observed might have been providing poor nutrition to their brood.