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