Birds with abnormalities

USGS' version of this flyer does not turn out well on my printer because it has a gray background so I tried to remove it. Original can be found following any one of the links below then looking at site map



Flyer is from the USGS Beak Deformities "How You Can Help site and is not copyrighted by me (stating the obvious here). They encourage you to distribute the flyer in your community. This is my backup copy for when my pc inevitably breaks down - removing the gray background was a royal pain and I do not intend to do it again. Ever.

USGS provides a recipe for nutritious Birdie Corn Bread. and building plans for a nest box to entice chickadees or nuthatches into your neighborhood


Photo taken 5/11/2009 in Seward, location unknown - probably the oasis or South SWP.

Dom Max has a slight indentation on the top left side of his head . His maxilla is elongated and curved. Not twisted ( that I have recognized anyway). He is comfortable with people and will cautiously take food from a person's hand (not just mine). He is demanding and will tap on my windshield to get my attention if I am tossing food and not handing him as much or as often as he thinks I should - he has narcissistic delusions of entitlement lol. Actually it would not surprise me if he could count. He does not demand I give him something every time but if I have tossed out enough for him to feel overlooked he will remind me. He can be quite aggressive when other crows get near when he is eating. He struggles to eat sunflowers seeds and unlike most of the crows he will take the smaller cat food before the larger dog food much of the time. He often must lay his head sideways to pick the food up because of the shape of his beak

Photo taken 5/11/2009 in Seward, location unknown - probably the oasis or South SWP.



Photo taken in back yard on 07/23/2008 (photo named with incorrect date - says 7/21/08)
It is probably just a preening issue or normal albeit unfamiliar to me, but the bulge on the Magpie on the lower left looks odd to me and reminds me of "Puffy" and the Starling Jay that had a tumor (Sea life center came and got him and determined that he had a tumor encroaching on his brain). One of the the magpies was limping, but I do not know which one.




Photo Taken March 2 2008 (mislabeled as March 1) on 'B' Street between Oasis and Wooded campground

This Juvenile has what looked like an abscess or tumor on its right foot so i called him "Lumpy" (actually I think it is a her). I reported it to someone at Sea Life Center who reported it to 2 vets. I saw this eagle several times but do not recall if I saw it after this date.

This photo of crows in flight was taken from my living room window on January 2 2008. Originally I counted 97 crows, but by labeling each crow I found 128 in the photo. No wonder I could not afford to feed them!

It has been a very long time since I took stats but I think you should expect to find between 2 and 3 crows with very unusual beaks in this flock and possibly more like 6 depending on the # of standard deviations and how you are quantifying the degree of deformity (does a particular bird's beak fall between two or three standard deviations of normal? ) . Maybe that is irrelevant but it seems like if you are studying etiology you have to take into account the natural occurrence of abnormalities.

Was counting the crows in the photo when I began to wonder how many actually have deformed beaks. I wonder if any unusual beaks have been reported this year.




The above seagull has rippled area on top of maxilla - looks similar to melted plastic




May 15, 2008 Back Yard

The beak looks odd to me - deformed?





June Oasis



This crow is MaxiGap and nests in the area I labeled "wooded campground" at the north end of Seward Waterfront park. Maxi Gap's beak looks a tad twisted at tip.



Feb 5-2008
This seagull has unusual coloring. It was the only one of its kind that I saw all winter







Another gull with deformity.





"Bent Foot" is normally near MaxiGap and RWWS aka W-W-. Note her right toes are completely bent under such that she walks on her ankle.


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Maxi Gap a juvenile in 2008?

Is MaxiGap the same crow I called Maxilla?
Or is the photo and maxilla a different bird? Whichever you can see the tongue is pink so this crow already had a deformed beak as a juvenile. if it is maxi gap this was before the injury or deformity of the ankle/toes/leg

01/22/2011 After looking at old photos I realized this crow looks more like Dom Max than Maxi Gap. There were several crows with elongated beaks in 2007-2008 and it was easy to get them confused unless they were feeding near each other. Maxi Gap is the only crow with such a deformed beak now, but recently I saw a young crow with a slightly elongated beak with a small gap.

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Severely Injured Seagull

I can't even look at the full sized photos. Too distressing.

This seagull Landed on the 6th Avenue side of Williams (?) campground off of B street. I tossed it some ham before I really saw how badly it was injured. Something appeared to fall off or out of the wound after it ate.



I reported it to the Alaska Sealife Center but since it is still able to fly they can not help it. I asked about a gull I reported about 2 weeks ago that had a hole in the front of its neck with what looked like a fish fin or something sticking out. The rehab/rescue person thought that was the same bird I was reporting today, but I assured him it wasn't because there is no comparison between the severity of the injuries and the first reported gull had a small hole in the front of the neck not a gaping wound in the side.



However, after I got home and uploaded the photos I realized this may be the same gull. I can see that the damage is not just on the side but extends around to the front. It actually looks like possibly another gull or animal grabbed hold of the fleshy looking thing that was sticking out of its neck and yanked it out! I know that sounds unlikely , but the hole was so small and I kept thinking it looked like a part of a fish sticking out.

I wish the bird could be helped . I can not imagine that it is not suffering and I do not see how it can recover on its own.






Click on photos to view full size

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Saw G-S today & a Helpful Crow yesterday

A charitable crow ...

Yesterday, while feeding the crows at South Seward Waterfront Park, I noticed MaxiGap sitting on a sign post for what seemed like a long time. At first I tossed food around her but when she did not fly down to get any of it I realized she was 'working' - doing sentry duty. When I was almost out of food and ready to head home she was still doing sentry duty so i decided to try to offer her some food by hand with her staying on the post by piling some food in my palm and staying low with only my palm raised up to just below her level.

I was approaching very slowly and had first called her name a couple of times and held out my palm for her to see the food to make sure she knew I was trying to feed her. I kept my palm in the air as I approached her post, and when I was only about 2 steps away another crow that was watching us flew to the post and took over sentry duty. The crow understood what was going on and took over for her! MaxiGap flew to the ground in front of me ready to receive my gift. :)

It was really cool to watch the other crow behaving cooperatively and helping MaxiGap by giving her a chance to eat the treat (she'd already had a small bit of bread earlier when I first arrived but now i was offering her meat). I know the crows take turns doing sentry duty, but this time it seemed obvious that the crow who had been watching understood the situation and therefore chose that moment to relieve her of duty. I am guessing it realized that 1) I was trying to feed MaxiGap and 2) I was not going to just toss the food on the ground giving other crows a chance to eat it (so there was no point in the crow loitering on the ground)

Crows are so wonderfully intelligent and sociable!

I know some of the crows are aware that I try extra hard to make sure MaxiGap gets something to eat besides seed each time i come. A few will take what is akin to the defensive position used in playing ball - hovering crowding blocking and basically sticking to her like glue ready to catch the pass once they notice that I have moved closer to her. It is funny, but frustrating! Makes it much harder to get the food to her. She, like Mangled Foot was, is much more cautious in general so it is hard to get close enough to make it easy to throw the food without it being intercepted .



Whenever I feed the crows I try to bring something easier than seed to eat for MaxiGap because she is disabled with a deformed beak and foot which makes it harder for her to open a sunflower seed shell to get to the seed itself. I also try to bring enough so that we can fail to complete the "pass" numerous times and still have enough to keep trying until she catches the food before other birds (crows and gulls) snatch it. It usually takes several tries, sometimes as many as 8 to 10, before MaxiGap gets any of the food I throw to her.

Once she (he?) and I have made eye contact she knows I will keep trying to throw the food to her until she catches it or I run out of food, which sometimes happens and is always sad for me. She recognizes when I am trying to distract the other crows by throwing a bit of food in another direction - she will not chase it like most of the other crows , but will stay put and wait - and normally i immediately throw something to her :) She tries to get clear of the other crows and gulls sometimes, but is not as adept at it as MangledFoot was. .

A member of her family I have been labeling in photos as White-White also has a damaged right foot - looks like the bands became wedged too far down on her foot and broke some toes. I noticed her this summer at the wooded campground with a nest at the north end of the circle - not MaxiGap's mate but they are almost always near each other and clearly in the same family group.

Much to my excitement I recently discovered she has a red band underneath the white band on the right foot! I have always known the silver band was still there and just hidden by the white band on the left foot (I have never known a bird to escape the metal band), but I had no idea she still had the colored band that would identify her. I know the band order because I see WhiteRedWhiteSilver every time i feed the crows so White/White with the mangled foot is actually Red/White-White/Silver! I thought she had died!

Goodness, there is so much i want to write, but I write so slowly! Lately i have noticed banded crows i thought were long gone and there are at least 2 that have escaped all of their colored bands and only have the silver metal band left. Today I saw a crow with only a green band - at one point i thought I had imagined it because i could not find it again, but just before I left to go home i spotted it again. There are others and I have decided to start carrying my camera again to try to get their photos.

I also discover last night that I still have many many unlabeled photos of banded crows. I thought I had almost caught up.

I still sometimes consider methods I could use to get the collection to Carolyn but I had alwasy hoped to have them labeled and organized first. Now I think that will never happen!

I again looked at pics of Mangled Foot's Bully Boy and tried to see if i could spot him today. His beak is a bit different from most but you have to see it at certain angles in order to tell. I did not see him. I have wondered if that was their offspring i found squashed in the road last August.

*sigh* Tired and will have to attach photos later. Much later.

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Gluttony in Middle Seward Waterfront Park & Campground

Blue/Red--Silver stocking up on dog food nuggets.





Red/White-White/Silver
This photo of White-White confirms that she is Red White - White Silver. There is or was another crow with white- White/Silver and there was no colored band underneath the white.





Maxi Gap









Above and below Mom teaches her fledglings the art of camp robbing...









In the photos labeled --WS I can not see the right leg well enough to determine whether there is a band on that leg, but based on notes I made at the time I believe the bird in pics labeled "--WS" only has the one plastic band. In the photo numbered 70 you can see the last 3 digits of the metal ID band - "037".



In addition to W-W- and __WS there is a crow with with _W-W/S .


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Mangled Foot

I think Mangled Foot died the first week of August 2009. This photo was taken the last time I saw her.

The last time I saw Mangled Foot was the morning of August 1, 2009 when I visited her before going to Anchorage to see my son for nearly a week. I watched her take a peanut into the road and sit on the yellow center line dividing the lanes to break open the shell. I felt a wave of fear for her that she might get hit by a car. The first or second time I returned to the campground after I returned from Anchorage there was a dead crow near the side of the road which had clearly been run over. I thought the beak appeared pink inside not from blood so believe it was one of the newly fledged.

I have not seen Mangled Foot even once since I returned from Anchorage. She normally comes when I call her name except for when she is sitting on her nest - usually in June. Maxi Gap has had a second group of babies so it is possible Mangled Foot has also, but even Maxi gap comes out to get some food. Sometimes I feel certain Mangled Foot has died and other times I still hope to see her.

I feel very sad to think she is gone and I will never see her again. It will bother me not knowing what happened, but maybe that is a blessing. Sometimes I think I see Bully Boy , but I am never sure since part of identifying him was his proximity to and interactions with Mangled Foot.

White band has been feeding several newly fledged crows and White/Red-White/Silver no longer has a mate so he must have died. He looked old last summer. A crow with only a silver band has appeared but does not look as large as Silver and I believe the original " Silver Houdini" was the one who died. I have been unable to get close enough to photograph this ones metal band number . There is also a crow with only a yellow and a silver band, but it is not the one who was so friendly and curious that I called "Yellow" last summer. I am certain that one has died as it showed up with a broken foot last Fall and I havent seen it at all this Spring or Summer. Many of the banded crows have disappeared Read more!

Mangled Foot

I saw Mangled foot today. She looks the worse for wear- she's lost weight and her feathers were ruffled in an unattractive manner , but I fed her some of my pizza.. I had not seen mangled foot for a month and was starting to thinkj she had died. i kept thinking that maybe she was brooding, but not having seen her even once had me worried. I saw her for the first time a few days ago and was so excited. I had pulled over near the nest i thought was hers and called her name quietly and suddenly she was in the tree watching me. I tossed out some peanuts and she swooped down and started to collect them. When I saw her foot and knew for certain that it was her I tossed her a piece of fish (fake crab) which she began to eat immediately. Today I was feeding the crows peanuts while i ate a slice of pizza i got from Lombardo's ($29 worth), but when she showed up I started sharing my pizza. I threw many pieces to or close to mangled Foot and she caught quite a few, but a few seagulls showed up and made it more difficult. Mangled Foot is smart and would place herself where she was in the area where i was tossing but away from the other birds - it is like a football player trying to make himself open for a pass. I am really happy to see that she is alive.

There were some very young crows that showed up for peanuts, but I could hear many more in the trees begging for food. I now recognize the sound of a baby begging then being fed - the sort of muffled sound mid begging.

The crow that eats from my hand took several pieces of pizza from my hand . I have decided to call him pretty boy. He was around a lot this past month so I am thinking he was not brooding and is not a female

I am very aware of the campers and do not want to disturb them. Last year there were two 1 child families camping right next to each other who complained even when I was only taking photo graphs from the road. Both were quite rude and I do not want a repeat. Read more!

Mangled foot's nest

Found Mangled Foot's nest today. I was walking past on the street.and heard what i thought was a fledgling begging for food. I followed the calls and it was Mangled foot sitting in a nest across from site 14. I offered her a couple of peanuts and she left the nest for a few seconds, took the peanuts, then returned to the nest. She started making the begging call again a couple of minutes later. In a tree seeming to watch over her when she left the nest was a crow that looked a lot like bully Boy, but had a beak I remember but can not place - it might have been Bully Boy or another crow i saw with Mangled foot last year.

I found myself automatically keeping an eye out for Silver Houdini. he or she used to be almost a sure thing any time I was at that end of Ballaine. I saw White-White/Silver or White-White on Silver.

Some tourists were watching a pair of crows on the bike path so I approached them. They asked if they were crows or ravens and said they had seen a crow with a yellow band a few minutes before. I told them USGS was studying them. I dont call people's attention to it now because last year they kept misinterpreting and assuming I worked for USGS and that was neither accurate, comfortable, or the point. I wanted people to be more interested in and tolerant of the crows. Since these people brought up the band I told them about the study. I wish I had thought to tell them about reporting sightings and that there was a website. I didnt think about it until later.

I looked for White/Red-White/Silver and the old looking fella she mated with (Maxi Gap?) - he had a long beak with a gap and looked like he could use a good dose of allo preening. I also looked for the yellow banded crow but never saw it.

When I set out on my walk I was heading for the rabbit yard. Noticibly absent was Old Man Rabbit who has been very sick with what I believe is a bacterial infection . He was having such a hard time breathing I tried to persuade a vet a Sea Life Center to treat him, but to no avail. I did see the big Tan Rabbit who is also sick with what I assume is the same respiratory illness. I gave her apples and carrots. This was the first time she didnt see very wary of me. She is almost always on the outside of the fenced rabbit yard and I wonder if it is because she is sick.

I wish I had gotten a photo or video of Mangled Foot in her nest. I will go back with my camera but probably not for a few days. I do not want to risk her feeling threatened or harassed , although she certainly seemed comfortable with my presence today. maybe it is because there are not many campers yet.

I dread the day when I am told or realize she is gone. Read more!

Silver Houdini died

Silver Houdini was found dead today in the wooded campground. Silver was one of the birds that was usually around mangled foot and would get very close to me, but was not an aggressive crow. I will miss Silver. I last saw him or her about two weeks ago. A worker in the campground found Silver. The band # is 705-75007 Read more!

Northwestern Crow

Quoted from Bird Web
Behavior

Outside the breeding season, Northwestern Crows are quite sociable, roosting and foraging in large flocks. They are intelligent and opportunistic, and quickly take advantage of new sources of food. They generally feed on the ground or in shallow water. They drop hard-shelled items onto hard surfaces, such as rocks and roads, to break them open. Northwestern Crows foraging in intertidal areas often store extra food during low tide, when it is plentiful, and consume it during the following high tide, when the intertidal zone is under water..

Diet

Northwestern Crows are omnivores. Because they live in coastal areas, much of their diet is aquatic creatures, shellfish, fish, seabird eggs, and various aquatic invertebrates. They also eat carrion and garbage.

Nesting

Northwestern Crows are monogamous and form long-term pair bonds. Sometimes one of the offspring from a previous year stays with the pair to help feed the nestlings. Both members of the pair help build the nest, which is a bulky, stick platform, lined with mud, moss, grass, rootlets, and cedar bark. The nest is usually in the canopy of a tree, but can also be in a shrub or on the ground. The female incubates 3-6 eggs (usually four) for 17-20 days. The female broods the young constantly for about four days, and then helps the male and helper bring food. The young start venturing out of the nest onto nearby branches at 26-33 days, and then begin to fledge about three days later (typically at 29-35 days). The young stay on the parents' territory for another couple of weeks, and are fed by the parents for a few weeks after leaving the territory. Read more!

Local teens harass baby rabbits

boys harassing baby rabbits . The boys were trying to kick in tunnels and removed large rocks that were helping shelter a nest of baby rabbits. They caught and took away at least one and left the others partially exposed one both side of the nest.


I tried to talk them out of pursuing the rabbits. I was very concerned one would be injured. I refer to their behavior as harassment , but that was not their intent. They just wanted to catch and keep some of the baby rabbits. They did not realize that they were being cruel.


This was the now partially exposed rabbit nest. I used a telephoto lens and had to sharpen the pic some to make it viewable. You can see fruit they used to try to coax the babies out of the nest

My living room window looks out on the park.over the summer I often saw the children of campers chasing the rabbits while they tried to graze. I sometimes walked down there and gave them a bag of broccoli, parsley, and baby carrots to try to feed the rabbits hoping both they and the rabbits would come to some sort of mutually beneficial arrangement lol.I just hated watching the rabbits be chased.

October 15:

About 2 weeks ago I ran into one of the youth with a different friend trying to catch the last baby rabbit. He told me the rabbit his other friend caught had died, but not because of anything the boy did or didn't do, he assured me. *cough* Right. He had done no research about rabbit care and had fed it lettuce. Exclusively. I did not ask questions. Did not want to know Read more!

Roll Call

Wet Molting birds are less than attractive.

This week I have seen Yellow/Silver, Yellow/WhiteSilver , White/WhiteSilver, Silver, BlueRed/or was it RedBlue ... MangledFoot, White/WhiteSilver, --/WhiteSilver, RedWhite/WhiteSilver, WhiteRed/WhiteSilver, BentFoot and either maxi gap or Dom Max. I think it is Maxi gap. Appears to have a bit of a twist at the tip of beak and mandible is a tad longer than maxilla. And he/she looks old.






I know I have seen Blue White and White Blue recently but do not recall seeing them during the past few days

Yellow/WhiteSilver I am afraid it is the one who now has a broken ankle. For the past 2 or 3 days I haven't seen him or her again.


The crows are coming to eat in my yard in shifts. Some will come several times during the day, but I am certain there are several different groups that are taking turns. If there is no food an adult will caw a few times and if I do not respond one or more will sometimes come and nag me at my bedroom window. There are still some young crows with baby voices that always catch my attention when they beg and that usually drags me out of bed also (I've spent a lot of time horizontal lately).

There are baby rabbits that some teen boys have made more vulnerable to preditors by moving the rocks around trying to access the nest so they could catch some of the bunnies. i am certain they caught at least one and put it in a box before I arrived. there were pretty thick tufts of fur at teh nest entrance. Pisses me off that parents do not teach their kids to be gentle and kind to animals. Ive seen teens try to run rabbits down on their bikes and with cars. Angers me.

White and tan rabbit is pretty comfortable around people and surprised me by approaching and eating out of my hand. Has also gently nibbles on my finger tips a couple of times. I have no idea what the message is because it followed when I started to slowly move my hand back thinking it had had enough

The alpha male of the group - the old looking charcoal gray rabbit with the infected eye - chased off the white a tan rabbit yesterday late afternoon. Usually he is trying to mount it so I was surprised. Instead he was following the black one around. There is a smallish tan one that may be a young adult and I have wondered if it is the parent of the new litter of bunnies. they are tan or black. I haven't seen the solid white one.


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Crows increasing in number

Sadly, a crow with a yellow band showed up with an injured right ankle or foot - I thought it was mangled Foot the way its foot was bent and it did not put any weight on that leg. I believe it was Yellow W/S

I thought I saw a crow with a single orange band that also had the white/silver band on left ankle .

Gradually I am seeing more and more of the banded crows that have been away all summer. Sometimes I see a large flock , but usually in my yard there are 10 - 20 at a time. The band colors change so I assume the other crows are different as well and these are different groups of crows coming to my feeders at different times of day.

Humorously, there is a very young one that seems to constantly beg to be fed. It aggressively follows its mother and basically harasses her until she feeds it. It actually makes me laugh sometimes when I hear the gurgling sounds that indicate the mom has given in and is feeding it, again. Sadly I have read that crows born late in the season have a harder time surviving winter. I am pretty sure I have seen the 'baby' pick up dog food and eat it in the yard - but it may have been another young one begging that I saw stop and feed itself.

Their voices are so different from the adults and do not seem as loud yet even back in my bedroom I can hear the young ones begging at the feeders on the living room side. There a couple of young ones that come with an adult and fuss at me if the feeders are empty and no food is on the ground. They park themselves on my open window or in the adjacent tree and squawk, wait, repeat. I think I pretty much always respond. Today I do not know what attracted them but there were about 7 outside my window and I did not want them annoying the neighbors by leaving deposits on the sidewalk so I drug my lazy tush out with a bowl of food and they mostly followed me around to the living room side. When I returned however there were still 3 crows hanging around the sunflower feeder.

I keep trying to get pictures but usually the banded bird I am hoping to get flies off too quickly or the photo is out of focus. I suck as a photographer. But it gives me an excuse to feed the birds - bribing the crows so I can photograph the ones with bands or deformed beaks , not merely because I enjoy the birds. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

I had actually been taking some photos of the crows before I ever learned what the bands were, in part i just wanted to show my family how large the flock was that would show up for dinner :) I never could get a photo that really showed the crows en masse on the ground. I would need a wide angle lens. A very wide angle.

The rabbits seem to have abruptly stopped sleeping under the tree since the rains started. I have seen them in the park a few times and once across the street. The medium sized tan one has started foraging on the north side of the bridge. I watched a crow repeatedly sneak up behind it and nip at its tail. When I caught up with the crows I offered it a bit of dog food (I didnt have much - Id come bearing gifts for the bunnies) trying to distract it so the rabbit could eat in peace. The crow was more interested in counting coup. It is kind of fun to watch them do that although I always feel some degree of pity for the animal they are harassing.

At night every time I have seen it there are two older larger rabbits (one is the patriarch I assume - the old looking one with an eye problem) kept trying to hump it and while it was trying to eat. It was gobbling up the broccoli like it was starving. It usually is not so eager. I think the white and tan one is a male but maybe it is just an agressive female. It took over black bunnies day time spot under the tree that she had dug out for herself.



I wonder what will happen to the babies . They are still much smaller than the adults. I hope they do not end up in the clutches of a predator. Or dies mercifully quick if they do.

It is horrifying to think people basically torture them on behalf of cosmetics companies. Pointless suffering. Think about it - we kill for make up

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Hungry fledglings!

I feel sorry for that mother...although it was kind of funny to watch the one fledgling following her. She fly away and it would fly after her and beg some more. Poor mom. She had just finished feeding these two something ( I was watching but not fast enough to catch it on camera).

I hear these or other young fledglings begging frequently off and on all day. I have 2 feeders up for the crows with dog food in them and sometimes add cat food. I do not know if they are all able to access them or not. i have seen some fledglings and adults at both feeders and each feeder is emptied daily.

I have lost track of mangled Foot again. I do not think she is with the group that is hanging out around here. I hope she is finding enough food wherever she is


I see yellow white silver and blue white white silver pretty often in the Back Yard
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The difference between a Raven and a Crow is ....

a matter of o'pinion...

That joke is for the birds... (groaning yet?)
Above photo of "Twins" reminds me of the DoubleMintGum commercials


Above Photo: Crows in the foreground; Ravens in the background






Photos above are of Ravens - Juveniles I think. Most of the summer there were 4 juvenile ravens that hung around Tsunami Row.

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Mangled Foot was here today

Mangled Foot showed up at my home today searching for food - first time all summer. Must not be finding enough food anymore. She along with 10-20 others were on the dirt road and adjacent construction site - a few were out front and a couple were in the tree out back.. I just happened to see them at 7 pm when I went into the kitchen.

I feel horrible about ending the feedings so abruptly . It is hard enough to cut down gradually when they continue to seem hungry but suddenly closing the kitchen seems cruel.- I am causing suffering and turning my back on animals that are counting on me. *Cough* That is , of course, one of the arguments against feeding them - dependency. The population learns to rely on an unnatural food source Withdraw the human provided food source and the population can't sustain itself. In addition, the population may become artificially inflated which can impact on other species in the area. I get it. Honest.

Still, I wish I could continue feeding them through the next two winters cutting back gradually so that they do not rely on my feeding them so heavily and can gradually find other sources again. Except for the ones that can not compete. And the ones that were juveniles when I started feeding them and may not have learned the winter food sources - this way they would have time to learn without having all support disappear (I am thinking of Yellow White Silver - a regular at my feeder).

I wish more people liked crows and would feed them with the same enthusiasm with which they feed smaller songbirds. Ive heard people so many times about various animals and seasons assert that there is plenty of food, yet starvation must be one of the methods nature uses to limit populations and a rehabber here told me sometimes an eagle will be sitting by the shore too weak to get off the ground and fly or hunt because it is starving (or has eaten too much lol - I guess during salmon runs) .

I am so attached to a few of the crows, especially Mangled Foot. Tonight it took me half a dozen tries to get a cheese ball close enough to her that she could snatch it and fly away before a seagull or other crow stole it from her. I worry for her. Her disability really hinders her. I wonder how she survived or if I met her during her first adult year . She is bullied by other birds and can not turn quickly or forage as easily since she can only use one foot. I never have easily accepted some of mother natures realities. Plus I think many animals are a lot smarter than we give them credit for and crows have feelings (just listen to them when they are mad at another crow that is trying to steel food!) and families and culture . I do not like the way humans behave as if they have the right to use animals and resources in whatever way we wish and without regard to the individual animals.

I am putting food in a bird feeder and balancing a little on some tree limbs so the crows can at least access something but the seagulls can not get to it. Yes, I feel sorry for them too - begging loudly to be fed - but I need to prevent them from associating me with food because they cause a noise disturbance and deposit droppings all over the sidewalk and people's cars out front. I am trying to discourage them before neighbors start to complain. Much... I'll be washing the sidewalk tomorrow Read more!

Christian the lion

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