Subject: [Tweeters] Species of the week: American Crow and American Dipper
Date: Jan 16 17:28:18 2006
From: Kelly Cassidy - lostriver at completebbs.com


[The species of the week are a little late in being posted because my phone
line has been out this weekend. I don't miss the phone, but it's amazing
how much I miss that internet connection, even my painfully slow phone line
connection.]

I considered skipping the crow for the species of the week because so many
crow stories have been posted. Everyone has a crow story. But, then I
realized: Everyone has a crow story and they'd be disappointed if they
didn't have an excuse to tell it. Anyway, who could get tired of reading
about crows, the unofficial Bird of Seattle? (The Audubon Society made some
silly choice like Great Blue Heron, but we all know that crows rule
Seattle.)

So, American Crow it is, with one restriction: First hand stories, only. No
"I heard from a friend..." or "I read..."

The second species of the week is that bird of fast water, the American
Dipper.

.My crow anecdote: Since I left Seattle, I don't see crows as often.
They're aren't many crows in Pullman and none around my house out here in
raven country among the wheat fields. So, my story is from about 9 years
ago in Seattle. I had just gotten a puppy. There were, of course, always
crows in the neighborhood, but they didn't normally hang around my yard. I
had let the new puppy out for one of its gazillion daily puppy potty breaks
when I noticed a crow quietly watching the puppy. Then another crow, then
maybe one or two more.

The puppy was far too large for a crow to attack, so why were they
interested? I think they keyed in on the sometimes-unsteady puppy walk and
were hopeful they had found a sick animal that might soon be carrion. After
a few minutes, the crows left. They ignored the puppy after that.

Dr. Kelly Cassidy
Curator, Conner Vertebrate Museum
Washington State University, Pullman, WA