W/R-W/S & mate at feeder! (& again 7/20/08)

I am not certain yet but I think Maxi gap or Maxilla is WR/WS's mate. The pair are nesting in the vicinity of the new playground and came to my bird feeder for the first time yesterday.

Unfortunately WR/WS only grabbed a couple of peanuts and flew home so her mate returned alopne. Repeatedly. So I could not photograph her. And he kept leaving right about the time i got the camera for what passes as focused before I see the outcome grrrr.

What was most frustrating was that 3 men at the construction site let their dogs loose while the mate was on the ground eating alone without a sentry and one of those dogs was lightening fast. Ive never thought before thjat a dog might actually catch one of the crows but gosh the dog was fast and the crow seemed slow to realize the dog was a threat (considering it left the fenced area like a horse at a race. Or a grey hound which it definitely resembled!beautiful dog)

Id had my camera ready and was waiting for it to fly back up to the feeder to get another nut which would bring it closer and not require so much zoom which would mean my pic might actually come out focused (my hands shake too much for the 10x zoom) The men laughed and I was annoyed. The birds didnt return for a few hours and I did a get a few pics then because he announced his rival (and displeasure that there were not enough nuts probably lol) but it didnt stay long or return after that

As you can see from the pics they arent clear enough and I cant tell if it is Maxi Gap or not.

My son might be coming today and I am going to drag him to feed crows at the Wooded campground since I cant

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May 21, 2008

Peter did not come this weekend since I will be up there later this week and the church did not need him to make the Costco run after all. I was both disappointed and relieved! Even after days of playing catchup the house was more of a cluttered mess than I wanted either him or his friend to witness lol.

WRWS's mate is not MaxiGap or Maxilla , but he sure has a set of tattered looking feathers and seems like he needs a heavy dose of allo-preening. They were at the feeder yesterday afternoon several times - I put out more peanuts. I got a clearer photo this time (one out of about 12! I am a disgrace to photographers the world over LOL). WRWS comes closer to me than her mate. I realized yesterday that some birds really do make good eye contact. I am not sure why that seems odd to notice. They seem to be looking into my eyes - not at my hands or anywhere else 9at the moments when I think theyve made eye contact ) and they do that when cawing at me to feed them - or staring at me intently when i am in car and they watch me through windshield waiting expectantly. I wonder what they are thinking. They seem sentient







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Ménage à trois

Mangled Foot and ... Is that Bully Boy??




By golly I think Bully Boy is mangled foot's offspring and has been helping feed her babes








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Maxi Gap and Dom Max

Maxi Gap and Dom Max are named for having elongated Maxillas

Above photo taken South SWP April 9, 2008

The next 2 photos below were taken August 3, 2008 on the southernmost block of 6th Avenue







Maxi-Gap looks similar to Dom Max but isn't. I hate to admit that unless they are together I can not tell them apart. I used to think I could.

Actually, Dom Max had a longer maxilla and I thought a less pronounced gap. But it is possible he might have broken off the extra length ...






These pics were taken July 9th at the USGS Crow Banding site or at the Wooded Campground is the beginning of my post.

I really can not normally tell them apart. The only reason i know there are two is because I have seen them together and I am not sure at all I am identifying them correctly when they are apart. Dom Max will come up to my windsheild and tap and beg for food and snatch a bit from my hand whereas the one I have been seeing this summer is more cautious. However, Mangled Foot is significantly more cautious this summer and I assume the caution is due to having babies to take care of - could be the same for this crow




Maxi Gap or Dom Max (or?) at South S Waterfront Park on April 29. 2008




I am not sure if this crow in the pic with eagle is Maxi gap, but the gap between its mandible and maxilla is significant compared to other crows here. Photo taken Jan 23 or 24th 2008 at the South Seward Waterfront Park


This next group of photos were taken April 30, 2008 South S Waterfront Park and I think they are all Dom Max




Definitely Dom Max









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Fledgling

The pink mouth is one of the characteristics that distinguish fledgling crows from adults.


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Campground encounters of the weird kind

Campground encounters of the weird kind

Was verbally harassed by some woman who blames me for the crows' squawking. Two strangers/campers being aggressive and hostile 2 times in one week! That is a lifetime record for me. She was in the site directly across from the man who had used his dog to try to intimidate me, heard the man telling me it was illegal to feed the birds, and a little later was talking loudly about my feeding birds but I ignored her and do not know specifically what she said other than it was directed at me and about her displeasure that I have fed birds. Ironically I was only taking photos and was not feeding them - just like today.

I think it is likely that the woman had complained to the Parks Dept and was now pissed off because I was there again and she felt robbed of her power or something. Her behavior was too aggressive to not have had some perceived personal slight fueling it. She was verbally attacking me from ... I don't know.... 30 yards away maybe? She kept saying that I was breaking the law, feeding birds was illegal, I shouldn't be in the campground without paying for a site etc, claiming I was violating this rule or that.

I ignored her for nearly 10 minutes but that seemed to only make her escalate and I did not want her calling the Parks Dept complaining that I was feeding the birds when I wasn't so I stopped photographing and stepped onto the gravel drive to her site where I could make eye contact. I explained that I was not feeding the birds and was only photographing the birds. She reacted as though I was lying even though I had nothing on me except my camera and had been photographing the fledglings from the road in plain view of her.

I am only human and my defenses have been down anyway for the past few days so foolishly I tried to refute the allegations, but she only got louder made up new ones. It quickly became obvious she did not care that I was not doing anything wrong. She just wanted to vent. After only 1-2 minutes of her talking over me I told her I felt harassed, thought we we were probably causing a public disturbance and was not going to discuss it further, then walked away. I doubt she heard me she was so busy attacking me. I took a few more photos with her still fussing in the background. Just before leaving I turned to see if she was actually talking "to" me but she was looking down so she was talking 'at' me.

As I was backing out and leaving she hollered that she knew I took a picture of her. Good grief! I did not know what to say to that and by that point was feeling angered by her contstant barage of accusations. I looked at her rolled my eyes and said something like yep thats right and im going to show it to the police if you keep harrassing me. I drove off with her now going on about how she was going to call the police herself. I could hear her voice saying something about police (the word police coming up several times) as I drove away and her voice THANKFULLY faded away until there was blessed silence.

I can hear her now:

'Arrest that woman. She shouldn't be feeding the birds..... Well no she was not actually feeding the birds but she was standing in the road taking pictures of the crows in the campsite next door to mine. Well yes there is a thicket of trees between my site and the one where the crows were and no she was not in my site, but I knew she was there and that alone annoyed me.... No the crows did not squawk after the first minute or so, but, Officer, her mere existence bothers me so arrest that woman!"

I think I have figured out why she was so hostile - one of the things she yelled at me was something about 5:30 in the morning. I had been trying to tune her out so did not hear what she actually said but I think she was saying Id been there at 5 30 in the morning. Not often but a few times I have indeed photographed the birds in early morning and one of those times was this week was before 7 am. It never occurred to me that my being there might wake someone up, but now I realize of course it could - the crows fuss at anyone when they near a fledgling or nest and Ive been doing so intentionally. They usually only fuss at me briefly but still, there is an initial racket

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Just 2 days before that I heard her making comments directed at me while I was eating at a picnic table and standing on a log trying to photograph a nest before and after the following incident:

It is unnerving and shocking to have people behave with such antagonism. Neither person simply told me that they would rather I not feed the birds or why. They were mean spirited people:

Not all campers are good natured. I was accosted by a camper day before yesterday while sitting at a picnic table eating dinner (take out halibut from a food stand Joe's? first time this year -was trying to eat away my blues ).

He had his dog on a leash but sic'ed it on me! It was growling barking pulling on its leash trying to get to me for several minutes which may not sound like long but sit and watch a clock and you will feel how long it is. Apparently he recognized me from other times when I have fed the birds in the open areas. He told me the dog was growling at me because I was feeding the birds. Um... Oookay. Pretty opinionated dog. I thought he was joking at first but he was aggressive and hostile and I quickly realized the man was serious - disgruntled and trying to intimidate me, which he did. I contacted the police but stubbornly (defiantly) stayed and finished taking my photos and eating my dinner. I had not fed the birds at all and was only there photographing and eating. Irony

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Bearly Fledglings

Saw more fledglings today. Also saw a bear...

Near the Mt Marathon trail head this afternoon this bear was checking out the picnic area. I enjoyed watching the bear until I realized the bear was also watching me ... and probably thinking I looked like lunch! I was in my car and rolling up the windows a heart beat after snapping this photo






This bear was looking for lunch at 2:30 this afternoon. Bear was not afraid of me. At all. Not even a little. And Bear was checking out anything and everything that might conceal food. Including me...






Yesterday a state trooper told me they have had to shoot some bears that became too aggressive with people after learning to associate them with food so when the only other person around suggested we try to chase Bear away I joined him in yelling, clapping, and stepping towards Bear.. Clapping seemed to be the most effective and sent Bear on its way back into the woods.




The man threw a few rocks and hit Bear in the rear right hip just before it disappeared into the trees. He believed that would help ensure that the bear associated the picnic area with a memorably unpleasant experience. Although I did not like seeing the bear actually hit and would not have chosen to do so myself, I think he is right and I'd much prefer the bear be hit with a rock than a bullet!

In the above video the man who was also there calls out "black bear" to warn hikers right after the bear emerged from the woods.






Sentry



Here a crow is serving Sentry Duty in one of the nesting areas. If anyone, birds, humans, or other critters get too close the sentry makes a racket cawing and squawking and alerting other crows who sometimes join in the ruckus. One trick the crows use is to fly away from where the fledgling is, land in plain sight of you, and squawk to draw your attention away from where the babies are.

Barely Fledglings



This is one the first handful of fledglings to fly. Fledglings are a little smaller than adults and have very pink mouths - you can see a touch of pink at the edge of the beak. They also have blue eyes although it is difficult to see in most of my photos, They are also very curious and not as wary of people as adult crows.

If a crow deems you too close to a fledging sometimes it will swoop down at you. I have video of one diving at me when it noticed me video taping it feeding a fledgling. I was surprised since I was using full zoom and really did not think I was close enough to cause alarm.

I was using full zoom while video taping and photographing so there is significant shake in the video and poor focus in the photos

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Mangled Foot's fledglings

I think these are Mangled Foot's fledglings . There are at least 7 nests that I have now located (and I think a couple more) and several are close to this campsite so it is possible these are another crow's or from 2 different nest's (I doubt that).

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This is campsite 20 or 21 where I originally thought Mangled foot and perhaps one other crow had a nest. Back in June I caught one of the younger adult crows tugging at a package of hamburger buns a camper had left out. A pan lid was also on the ground nearby and I thought a crow had probably been playing with it. The campers returned and laughed about it and said they had already 'met' the crows. They had been hearing frequent crows calls that sounded odd which I explained were baby crows (and those calls are how I found the nests - I knew they were there because the adults were hanging around and pretty aggressive both in squawking and diving when I walked near certain trees along the road ).


While I was sitting at a picnic table eating dinner I saw a fledgling leave a tree and land on a log for the first time. Unfortunately my photos are still usually poor quality/ poorly focused. I have not yet learned the art of choosing the best setting to get the best auto focus. Or else my camera has cheap optics to match the cheap price I paid for it.... Read more!