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I took up drawing this year. I\u2019m still very much a beginner, but I am getting much better at really looking at something and seeing it at the level necessary to draw it.<\/p>\nI took up drawing this year. I\u2019m still very much a beginner, but I am getting much better at really looking at something and seeing it at the level necessary to draw it.<\/p>\n
One of the things I do is take pictures of things I think would be interesting to draw, so the sketch accompanying this post was made from a photo I took of a crow standing in the street on a sunny day.<\/p>\n
My sweetheart and I feed the neighborhood crows, so I\u2019m always looking at them. And, as with drawing, I find that the more I look, the more details I discover.<\/p>\n
Years back my sweetheart started carrying some cat kibble in a small pouch so he could try to make friends with the crows. However, this was a hit-or-miss system and it didn\u2019t really take off until during the pandemic, when he joined me on my regular walks around the block. The crows took note of us because the pattern was more regular.<\/p>\n
After awhile, I had to start carrying treats, too, because they associated me with my sweetheart. They come to our bedroom window most mornings. We now feed crows within a four-or-five-block radius of our place.<\/p>\n
Today, though, when we went for a short walk, none of our crows were nearby. However, there were large numbers of them in the sky, all flying the same general direction.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m pretty sure there\u2019s a big crow meet-up somewhere downtown. I know crows have meetings from time to time. Sometimes they have them in a big tree in our neighborhood, but whatever they were doing today involved more crows than that.<\/p>\n
Crow business. I\u2019d really like to know more about crow business, but I don\u2019t speak Crow, more\u2019s the pity.<\/p>\n
We have learned a lot by watching and looking things up, though. The most obvious thing we figured out was that crows can distinguish people. They know us, and they know us apart from other people who live in our building or on our block.<\/p>\n
And while I\u2019d assume they\u2019re picking up on the fact that both of us have a lot of wavy gray hair, they recognize us when we\u2019ve got on bike helmets and are riding our bikes. They also recognize us both separately and together.<\/p>\n
I find this embarrassing, because I can\u2019t tell crows apart. I can tell that one is larger, some smaller, and after years of watching, I\u2019m pretty sure that a lot of smaller ones are this year\u2019s fledglings.<\/p>\n
Occasionally, one will make a slightly different noise. There\u2019s one my sweetheart is calling Carlson who makes a hoarse clucking sound different from a regular caw. But we only know that one when it speaks.<\/p>\n
I can\u2019t tell gender at all. I assume in the spring that the largest ones we see demanding treats are males looking for food to take back to the nest, where the female is sitting on eggs. But there are others begging food as well. Crows have small family groups, usually including at least a couple of junior birds from last year\u2019s nest, and all of them help in the spring when the females lay eggs and those eggs hatch.<\/p>\n
The fledgings learn to fly before they are able to feed themselves. This was a surprise to me, though I looked it up and it is not uncommon among birds.<\/p>\n
In early summer, juvenile crows are often perched on the telephone wires, screaming at their parents and older siblings for food.<\/p>\n
I think of them as teenagers, always hungry. And they keep it up even after they\u2019ve finished developing enough and learned how to get their own food.<\/p>\n
You can tell this is what is happening because (a) juvenile crows make a different sound, (b) juvenile crows are red inside their mouths, and (c) the other crows do, in fact, feed them.<\/p>\n
Though sometimes they tell them to take care of themselves.<\/p>\n
Something else about crows: they don\u2019t see well in the dark. They get up with the sun and head for the roost when it goes down. In spite of the fact that we think of crows in connection with Hallowe\u2019en and gothic matters, they are daytime birds.<\/p>\n
And while they live in family groups, and are very territorial about their daytime spots \u2013 we probably see five or six family groups regularly\u2013 they roost in large groups, usually in parts of town that have a lot of trees.<\/p>\n
The location of the roost changes from year to year and I\u2019m sure in places like the East Bay there are multiple roosts.<\/p>\n
There are a reasonable number of birds of all kinds in our area \u2013 house finches, towees, hummingbirds, blue jays, sparrows. Geese are often nearby and starlings come through several times a year. You can often hear birdsong, but it all goes quiet whenever a raptor comes by.<\/p>\n
Usually that\u2019s some kind of hawk. You\u2019ll see it up on a tree or a pole, just sitting and waiting.<\/p>\n
But you\u2019ll also see it in the air, with a group of crows yelling at it and chasing it off.<\/p>\n
The crows aren\u2019t stupid. They don\u2019t take hawks on one-on-one. They\u2019re at a disadvantage and they know it. But a crowd of crows can discourage a hawk from hanging around looking for dinner.<\/p>\n