Tag Archives: crow

Crows Eating the Berries

Two years in a row, I have seen this in Juanita Bay Park. There are some trees that have some red berries on them in the fall and the crows seem to love them. They can flock to the trees in large numbers sometimes. I assume the fruity casing of the berries is appealing as they do like them. However, when I get closer, the crows seem to get nervous. A little video to add to show one of the crows having a good chomp.

Crow and Gull Combat

When in the wild, you have two options for food.  First, you can find and catch your own.  Second, you can find someone else that has already found and caught some food, and you can steal it from them.  The latter is way easier than the former, provided you have the ability to relieve the owner of their meal.  I was walking alongside the water at the locks in Ballard one weekend and a crow was attempting to help a gull lose weight by taking its meal.  What followed was quite some aerial ballet and they twisted and turned with the gull trying to make sure it kept a good hold on its food while maneuvering hard to prevent the crow from taking anything.  The gull was ultimately successful in this case.

Crow Plumage is Gorgeous in the Right Light

When people think of photographing birds, the more exotic types are going to probably be of more interest to many.  While I am obviously (if you follow this blog) partial to photographing an eagle or an owl, I also find the more common birds cool.  A pigeon has some amazing flying capabilities, gulls can look elegant in flight and crows have fantastic feather coloration.  One of them was sitting on a fence very close to me as I sat in the car.  The light was glinting off the feathers making the subtle colors show up nicely.  How could I not photograph it?  You might dismiss the average crow, but they can look very cool.

Gull’s Crab Lunch Under Threat

As we walked along the shore trail in Stanley Park, we came up on a gull that had just caught a crab.  The gull was intent on eating the crab, as well you might imagine.  However, its lunch had also caught the attention of a bunch of crows (could hardly call them a murder).  Consequently, the gull was trying to find a way to avoid the crows and eat its food.  It was not going to escape them, of course.  Instead, it had to do the best it could and accept that they were going to get a few scraps.

 

Inquisitive Crow

This crow landed on a street light near me.  It caught my attention because it seemed to be fascinated by something under the light.  It would lean right over the edge to try and get its head underneath – presumably because there was something edible there.  It even tried flying up from the underside but that didn’t go so well.  I’m not sure if it got what it wanted or just gave up.

Crows Mobbing a Bald Eagle

I never fail to be amazed at the crap that large birds of prey take from smaller birds.  The eagles fly around here with crows and other birds swooping in at them and trying to drive them away.  The strangest part is that the eagles barely do anything about it.  I have seen how agile an eagle can be in flight and a rapid turn to point some talons at an incoming crow is well within their capability but they just don’t bother.  I was down south of Seattle recently and heard the familiar call of a bald eagle (not as cool as you might think).  It was sitting on a tree top.  Crows were coming in to hassle it regularly and it barely flinched.  I shot a small video clip to show the crows working as a pair and that is included below.