Hi all:

I wish I could remember how many years ago this was, but I once watched 20
crows quietly surround a Sequoia at Greenlake and then silently fly into the
tree about 4-6 off the ground. It seemed like odd behavior to me, so I
walked over to the tree and into the outer branches far enough to see the
object of their attention - an adult male Sharpie right up against the
trunk. It was the first time I had seen one at close range, and he was
gorgeous. He also was so small in comparison to those shiny black villains!
I immediately lost all objectivity; I was on the Sharpie's side.
Crows are usually quite wary of being too close to humans, yet a couple of
the crows that were fixated on the little guy were within 3 feet of me and
paid no attention to me whatsoever. None of the crows did. I waited, and
they waited. Then the Sharpie went from perched to full blast and bolted
from the tree and into the next one. A little over half the crows followed.
The hawk did this twice more, losing more crows each time. He eventually
flew into trees across the street without an escort.
I've seen crows chasing Sharpies into dense conifers in my neighborhood and
watched them mob other hawks, but I've never seen that type of behavior
again.


Ruth Taylor
Seattle/Ballard
rutht AT seanet . com


-----Original Message-----
From: Josh Hayes <josh at blarg.net>
To: tweeters at u.washington.edu <tweeters at u.washington.edu>
Date: Tuesday, February 12, 2008 3:59 PM
Subject: [Tweeters] Crows to Sharpie: Stay!


>Yesterday I spotted a Sharp-Shinned Hawk in the filbert tree in my back
>yard; I was "pointed" to it by a gang of a dozen or so crows sitting around
>muttering. But they were just sitting, not mobbing.
>
>Then the Sharpie tried to take wing and the crows went berserk, flapping
>around and cawing, and the poor hawk dashed back to the filbert again.
>
>I spent about twenty minutes watching; the sharpie tried to get away three
>times and was driven back to the tree each time (and then I had an
>appointment and couldn't watch the denoument).
>
>Is this common behavior? The crows didn't seem to want to drive the hawk
>away, they just wanted to keep an eye on it. Maybe if it had been a larger
>bird, a large Cooper's or a red-tail, maybe (never had a red-tail in my
>yard, however) they'd have been more aggressive?
>-Josh