[va-bird] Crow Music!!!

Good morning VAbirders!

A most delightful and endearing sound sailed through my window this morning 
and filled my hungry ears.  The "Caw-caw-caw!" of Corvus brachyrhynchos was 
a welcome sound, a sound that has been rare this year, a sound I've missed.

This soggy, mosquito-rich year of 2003 has been a sorry one for us Corvid 
lovers, eh?  With their numbers reduced due to West Nile, intentional 
poisoning by government agencies in years past, and who knows what other 
reasons, it seems that the noble Corvids are struggling to hold on in our 
urbanized neighborhood.  It's hard for me to believe that we ever had 
flocks of several hundred crows sitting in the tops of our trees each 
winter harrassing the Red-tailed Hawks and creating a racket that rang 
through the neighborhood.  There were times that even I couldn't take it 
any more so would open the window and bang a frying pan with a wooden spoon 
to shoo them off.  And when they'd go I'd grin at them at say, "Quiet down 
you guys, enough already, leave that hawk alone!"

Years ago, I put up a platform feeder big enough to accommodate Crows' 
large bodies.  When Corvids were here in their previous numbers, the Crows 
and Blue Jays would finish off the big pile of peanuts I'd put on the 
feeder for them within about 10 minutes.  They would watch as I put them 
out and as soon as I was in the back door, they'd call out loudly and swoop 
down on them.  Jousting with each other, they would stuff themselves with 
peanuts.  The Blue Jays could manage only 1 or 2 peanuts at a time, but the 
Crows had more room.  Their maximum capacity seemed to be 5 or 6 large 
in-the-shell peanuts, and they would get frustrated when they couldn't 
carry more!  Now that we are almost "Corvidless" here, the pile lasts all 
day as the woodpeckers, Grackles, and Titmice make off with them.

This season was the first in recent years that an American Crow family 
didn't nest in our woods and feed their kids at our peanut 
feeders.  Fortunately for us, a Fish Crow family arrived and it was a happy 
surprise!  We heard, "Auh-auh, auh-auh," instead of "Caw, caw, caw."  But 
my happiness has been tinged with dismay at the small number of other 
Corvids present.  Currently, we are seeing 2 Blue Jays instead of the usual 
10-15.  And sadly, we have found 2 dead Blue Jays in the garden this summer.

So when this morning's dawn chorus was enriched with a loud "Caw, caw, 
caw," it gave me a boost and I quickly checked to make sure the peanut 
feeder was full.  It was, and down they swooped, 3 American Crows.  As they 
elbowed each other and grabbed peanuts I smiled at them and said, "Bring 
your friends!"  And I am hopeful that they will.

Lori Markoff
Vienna
Fairfax County
canyon.eagle@xxxxxxxxxxx 

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