Tweeters,

About an hour ago, I heard the crows alarm calls going off over a part of downtown Des Moines. I walked out onto my deck and observed 10-15 crows dive bombing one of our local adult Bald Eagles that was eating either a fish or a raccoon on the roof of an apartment building. They chased it around and I watched it fly over Des Moines main drag, over to a few other buildings with it's lunch in talons until I lost track of them all.

Quite a ruckus but fun to watch.

Whitney H.
Des Moines, WA

________________________________
> Date: Wed, 27 Jun 2007 15:21:17 -0700
> From: obryan214 at yahoo.com
> Subject: Re: [Tweeters] AMERICAN CROWS Dive Bombing a...WHAT??
> To: fremontinn at aol.com; johntubbs at comcast.net; tweeters at u.washington.edu
> CC:
>
> Hello,
> A couple weeks ago I saw a pair of Crows chase a raccoon across Orchard street here in Tacoma. I'm guessing it got to close to a nest.
> Bryan O.
> Tacoma Wa.
> obryan214 at yahoo.com
> fremontinn at aol.com wrote:
> John & Tweets,
> Yesterday morning I was fixing breakfast and I heard crows making a LOT
> of noise outside. I stepped out on the porch and saw them high in our
> cherry tree. They took turns diving at something in the tree. I was
> also looking for a hawk but instead found a raccoon! It was picking
> cherries and the crows were not at all happy that it was feasting on
> "their" cherries.
> Bruce Jones
> Shoreline, WA
> -----Original Message-----
> From: johntubbs at comcast.net
> To: tweeters at u.washington.edu
> Sent: Wed, 27 Jun 2007 4:37 pm
> Subject: [Tweeters] AMERICAN CROWS Dive Bombing a...WHAT??
> Hi All,
> Yesterday evening when I got home from work I looked out the window to
> see (and hear) four or five crows about 100 yards away dive bombing
> something. Whatever the something was appeared to be at ground level
> based on the crows' flight paths. Curious, I grabbed my binocs to see
> what could be on the ground that they were after. Peregrine? Nope.
> Eagle? Nope. Hawk? Nope. Owl? Nope.
> What they were dive bombing was an adult coyote sauntering across an
> open area...! I don't know if this is common behavior for crows, but
> it certainly was a first for me. Hard to imagine what threat the
> coyote posed to them unless there was a fledgling crow out of the nest
> too early and who wasn't able to get airborne yet that they were
> protecting.
> Anyone else ever witness something like this?
> John Tubbs
> johntubbs at comcast.net
> www.tubbsphoto.com
> _______________________________________________
> Tweeters mailing list
> Tweeters at u.washington.edu
> http://mailman1.u.washington.edu/mailman/listinfo/tweeters
> ________________________________________________________________________
> AOL now offers free email to everyone. Find out more about what's free
> from AOL at AOL.com.
> _______________________________________________
> Tweeters mailing list
> Tweeters at u.washington.edu
> http://mailman1.u.washington.edu/mailman/listinfo/tweeters
> ________________________________
> No need to miss a message. Get email on-the-go
> with Yahoo! Mail for Mobile. Get started.