Very common behavior for crows. All BOP will make a meal out of a crow chick
if given the chance. I've always thought this was the crow's way of
intimidating the BOP against any future desire to rob their nests.
Just my own guess.

I can offer one other observation. I once saw a falconers' Goshawk take a
crow after a tail chase out of a parking lot in the Kent Valley. Other
crows came in to lend assistance in a very vicious manner. The Gos was
behind a fence that prevented a quick response by the falconer, as well as
the distance involved. The Gos was a three year old hen and very secure
about her place in the food chain. As the crows came in on her, she plowed
into them and quickly turned one kill into three. At this point the crow
swarm retreated to the light poles and just watched her start plucking; they
were all rather quite. You could just hear the gears in the crow heads
thinking "dang, that didn't work at all like we planned". His Goshawk was
never again swarmed in that area. Crows learn very fast, and remember.

Clarence C. Lupo
Onalaska


----- Original Message -----
From: "Ruth Taylor" <rutht at seanet.com>
To: "Josh Hayes" <josh at blarg.net>; <tweeters at u.washington.edu>
Sent: Tuesday, February 12, 2008 8:52 PM
Subject: Re: [Tweeters] Crows to Sharpie: Stay!


> 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
>
>
>
>
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