A week ago last Friday, I was having lunch in my car at Houghton Beach Park
on Lake Washington. There is usually bird activity of some sort to watch,
however the usual ducks were not to be seen. There was however a group of
eight Canada Geese feeding in the grass. Along came a lone crow. The crow
landed a few feet away from the geese and started to also peck at the grass.
A few sideways hops later the crow was in the middle of the geese. One
goose bade him to move away and the crow did, for a moment. The goose
turned and continued to feed. The crow however made one quick sideways hop
and grabbed the tail feathers of the goose that had uninvited him. The
goose jumped turned and snapped at the crow, who as you might expect hopped
out of reach. Everyone went back to feeding, the crow again jumped behind
the goose and once again grabbed the tail feathers. The crow did this one
last time and the goose finally chased it away. I have seen some crows
doing interesting things in the past, but goosing a goose? It gave me a
good laugh.

Melissa McKenzie
bmsh.mckenzie at gte.net
Kenmore By The Lake

-----Original Message-----
From: TWEETERS-owner at u.washington.edu
[mailto:TWEETERS-owner at u.washington.edu]On Behalf Of Guttman, Burt
Sent: Friday, May 21, 2004 4:38 PM
To: Tweeters at u.washington.edu
Subject: Crow(?) antics


It occurs to me that some of you may be interested in a couple of events
that I ascribe to crows, even though I didn't see any crows in action.
Among the decorative items on our front porch we had a fake nest with some
fake styrofoam eggs, which looked pretty realistic for some unknown, maybe
nonexistent, species. One morning recently we found it sitting in the
driveway, with the eggs well pecked. We have quite a few crows around the
yard, and I'm pretty sure some crow spotted the nest and took it to be the
source of a good meal. It was probably quite disappointed when pecks at the
eggs only yielded bits of plastic. A couple of days later, I found a little
plastic bag with some brightly colored marbles lying in the driveway; I had
a few of these bags on a shelf near the garage entrance, which was open, and
it seems likely that a crow saw the pretty little baubles, took them for
eggs, and went after them. Disappointment again.
It occurred to me that the marbles incident might be associated with
play rather than food; Bent's Life Histories, rich as it is in anecdotes,
doesn't mention playful behavior among crows, as far as I can see, but a
brief reference in Terres's Audubon Encyclopedia notes that some corvids are
generally playful and that some birds play with pebbles. So the culprit in
this case might have been attracted by the bright colors and might have been
looking for toys rather than food.

Burt Guttman guttmanb at evergreen.edu
The Evergreen State College
Olympia, WA 98505 360-456-8447
Home: 7334 Holmes Island Road S.E., Olympia 98503