On Wed. 8/15 Laura Plaut writes:

>I also noticed this interesting behavior about crows recently, when I felt
>quite generous one day and fed them pistachios in the shell. They flew
>off a short distance with them, and stashed a group of three nuts in a
>little cache nest, and then covered them with a tuft of grass. The cache
>was still there a couple of days later, and I don't know if the crows
>eventually reclaimed them or not.

>They don't seem to exhibit this same behavior with peanuts. Maybe I'll
>try another experiment with another exotic nut!

Connie Veldink and I once watched a crow cacheing french fries in this
manner. After jamming a french fry into a hole it had "pecked" in the
grass, it covered the cache with a plug of grass and then marked the
location with a clump of moss or small pine cone. However this bird's
efforts were foiled by an observant gray squirrel who could easily sniff
out the fries. One of the more amusing episodes in animal watching I've
witnessed.

Ed Schulz
Everett, WA
eschulz at eldec.com