American Crows at Woodard Bay Conservation Area (Thurston County)
adjacent Henderson Inlet have a practice of dropping clams on the
asphalt of the disused Whitman Road which winds through the forest
northwest of Woodard Bay. Gulls, of course, drop clams to open them,
but only in the open, not within wooded areas. This is no small feat
for the crows: much of Whitman Road is under the canopy of over-hanging
Big-leaf Maple limbs, so places with sufficient elevation and a clear
path down to the road are spotty.

In recent visits to the Woodard Bay C.A. I've noticed a number of
freshly broken clams lying on the roadway with still-moist remnants of
clam meat and tissue. A few days ago while walking along the road I
came upon a male Spotted Towhee on the road, picking at a clam shell,
cleaning up the remnant tissue. I stopped and watched this for about a
minute before the towhee finished eating and flew back into the road-
side brush.

Does anyone know of similar crow behavior elsewhere in our area?

Doug


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Douglas Canning
Olympia, Washington
dcanning at zhonka.net
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