Bob,

I worked on the Olympic Peninsula for 3 years in the 1990s and my experience was similar to what you are describing. On the west side there was a very distinct line only a few miles inland. For example the crows at Mora or Ruby Beach in the park were noticeably smaller and had distinct vocalizations from those east of Forks. Although it was rare a couple of times I did have an interior (American) crow show up on the beach where it?s larger size and different vocalizations would make it stand out. I don?t ever recall seeing a northwestern type east of US 101. In my experience the two crow types pretty much keep to themselves with very little mixing.

As for diet I suspect that both crows are simply taken advantage of what nutrients are available. For example when I was living in Skagway, AK where American Crows are generally not considered to occur the northwesterns were quite happy dumpster diving and feeding on roadkill or bear kill.

Mike Munts
Colville

From: Bob and Barb Boekelheide
Sent: Wednesday, June 20, 2012 5:51 PM
To: Gene Hunn ; Tweeters Tweeters
Subject: RE: [Tweeters] Northwestern Crows

Look no further! The zone of contact is clearly my yard in Dungeness, WA. I look north and west, the crows sound dark and woodsy, their vocalizations end with "aye," and they eat clams and shore crabs in Dungeness Bay. I look south and east, the crows sound kind of corny, their vocalizations end with "aw," and they eat my walnuts, roadkill, and baby birds (which of course they "farm" for optimum energy consumption!). Once again science proves the obvious.

Since we have lovely Olympic Gulls here with befuddled parentage and sympatry, how about if we just call all the crows in western Washington "Olympic Crows." Have you heard the S'Klallam story about how "Crow" was hanging out with a bunch of large pink-legged gulls in the intertidal one day, and, before you know it, Crow couldn't tell who he was, either?

Bob Boekelheide
Dungeness



From: "Eugene Hunn" <enhunn323 at comcast.net>
Date: June 19, 2012 2:33:32 PM PDT

To: "'Louise Rutter'" <louise.rutter at eelpi.gotdns.org>, <tweeters at u.washington.edu>

Subject: RE: [Tweeters] Northwestern Crows



In the case of the ?Northwestern Crow,? while crows from the Kenai Peninsula to the outer Olympic Peninsula may vary little, there is no clear boundary between those crows and the mass of crows throughout western Washington. The ecological preference for beach foraging could simply be due to where the available crow foods are to be found along the densely forested outer coasts. If there are really two crow species in western Washington there should (or perhaps ?must?) be a zone of contact, of sympatry, where one could demonstrate the coexistence of two distinct species populations.

I remain highly skeptical of the ?Myth of Two Crows,? lacking some more definitive data.

Gene Hunn
Petaluma, CA


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