Thanks to Mike's tip I finally got the observation I wanted!

On Saturday as I was walking to the Fill I saw some American Crows
hovering and fishing over the lake at the Waterfront Activities
Center. Just like a week ago.

But now I really was looking for what they were taking. And I think
this time the cloudy lighting helped me too see what they were doing.
They are catching small dead fish from the surface of the water.

The fish are silvery and perhaps 3" long (somewhat longer than a
crows bill) so I could well believe they're sticklebacks.
Unfortunately they're out on the "dock" that doesn't have a
connection to land so I couldn't check on the scraps there were
leaving but I'm sure they're as Mike describes.

They do dip their feet in the water but I think that's more a sort of
"contact sensor" to tell them how close to the water surface they
are. I did see one who drop a fish already caught whilst bring it
back to land so he caught another more (more hovering) then dropped
than one. On the final catch he very nearly dumped is vent into the
water. A burst of extra power and he headed back to eat his fish.

They were still doing it on Sunday too.

On Jun 4, 2009, at 12:28 PM, Mike Wagenbach wrote:

> I think the crows are eating some kind of stickleback. This is an
> annual event. I guess the sticklebacks die after spawning.
>
> After the crows pick at the carcass, there is a bony almost
> cylindrical section left from the middle of the body with the
> eponymous spines on the back. You can find these on the docks down
> at UW's Waterfront Activities Center, and if you find one with your
> bare foot, you may need to put down the kayak you were carrying to
> pull the carcass out of your skin. Guess how I know about this!

--
Kevin Purcell
kevinpurcell at pobox.com