Hi everyone,



Maybe this is old news for others, but I saw a crow exercising the vaunted Corvid family 'intelligence' just now.? Every morning I spread some pre-husked seed on the ground for the local ground-feeding birds (we have quail, and the normal throngs of juncos this time of year for example).? This blend includes a reasonable?percentage of peanuts, which are obviously not in the shell - so the seed mix?looks something akin to a party mix of nuts?for people.? I just looked out and was watching two crows picking through the seed - we usually get a crow or two briefly each day, not hordes thankfully - and saw one that had figured out a very efficient way to gather the peanuts.? (Many of the birds prefer the peanuts and eat them selectively until they're gone, then work on the other stuff - chickadees and nuthatches are two birds that do this.)? Anyway, the crow was going around and picking up peanuts and somehow maneuvering them into a neat line in its bill and managing to hold them in place while it added others to the growing group, so that when it finally flew off, the entire length of the crow's bill was packed with neatly arranged peanuts - perhaps ten of them in total.? It then took its plunder and?flew off?elsewhere, presumably some place where it can consume the haul without fear of attempted theft by other crows, or perhaps even to stash them for later consumption.? The other crow appeared not to have figured this technique out and was eating the nuts individually during the time the 'smart' crow was being more efficient.? I wonder how long it will be until the observant sidekick figures this one out as well...?



John Tubbs

Snoqualmie, WA

johntubbs at comcast.net

www.tubbsphoto.com