Hi all,


It's been a dismal year so far at Butyl Creek (the recirculating creek in our backyard here on residential Beacon Hill, Seattle) but we did have a Nashville Warbler in yesterday evening and 2 Orange-crowns just bathed with a Wilson's Warbler a minute ago.

This morning I saw an incident that further convinces me that Crows "farm" bird nests.? I heard the local Robin family getting excited and calling urgently for backup, but I was still slow to look up from the computer.? When I did I was surprised to see a Crow in a horizontal dive in my direction, evoking the image of a Cooper's Hawk, and headed straight for the Holly tree where the Robins have a nest.? Without ever slowing down, the Crow pulled a full-sized baby out of the nest and was gone.

What's interesting about this is that about three weeks or a month ago the Robins got terribly upset and called me out.? At that time I was armed with a Super-soaker and I chased a Crow away.? That Crow's behavior was not really attacking, it was perched in the Holly tree peering around, and it's behavior was totally consistent with a reconnaissance mission.? It left the area.

Obviously nothing here proves anything, but I see these events as consistent with the notion that Crows are locating nests, waiting for the nestlings to reach max. weight while still immobile, and then making their move.? It would also explain generally that when I've witnessed Crow predation, it always seems to be of a full-size nestling.??

Well, I don't expect a single person in tweeter-land to agree with me, but maybe at least I can get some sympathy for two suddenly unemployed Robins.

And two more thoughts:? The Holly-tree the Robins nested in is dense, but getting less so as it ages.? Are young non-native Holly trees the best (only?) hope for tree-nesting species in the urban zone?? Birds clearly need armored vegetation for any hope of safety from Crows, and native vegetation doesn't seem to offer much.? I would think twice before removing Holly from yards in the urban zone for environmental reasons.

The other is, I've long believed that Crows are the main reason for the loss of our formerly abundant Nighthawks.? If Crows can find nests in Holly trees, how could they ever miss one on an open rooftop?


Just wondering,

Ed Newbold ednewbold1 at yahoo.com