Who are the Crows of Grand Forks?

Who are the crows of Grand Forks?  That sounds like a sentence referring to people, not to animals.  Still, I wonder.  The crows of Grand Forks seem so different than the crows of upstate New York.  Compare to the crows of Schenectady, these crows seem to be more aloof, more gentle, and appear to not concern themselves with harassing birds of prey...at least, that's how they come across.

Back in Schenectady, New York, crows roam the skies creating chaos and trouble.  Whether or not it's their fault is up for interpretation.  I suppose in their minds they are doing good.  They harass predators and force them out of the neighborhood.  They seem fearless against hawks, even taking them on one-on-one.  Seeing crows stand up to predators is really a sight to behold.  However, it seems like "everyone gets it," even hawks that normally don't eat birds, or large birds that don't eat birds at all.  Birds that even loosely resemble birds of prey because of their size "get it."

One day, a long time ago on Lafayette Street in upstate New York, I witnessed a group of crows harassing a giant bird.  It was the biggest bird I'd ever seen.  Up until today I always assumed it was an owl...now I'm not sure.  I remember straight wings, as if the creature was in soaring position, which would indicate a hawk or a relative, not an owl, but I'm simply not sure.  I'll never forget that scene.  The bird was silent.  The mobbing took place very close to the ground at eye level. Would a bird be in soaring position that low to the ground?  Perhaps it was because of the mobbing.  The event took place in a business parking lot across the street from the property I lived on.

After the event, I drew a picture of it. That pic no longer exists.  Here I've created the drawing from memory.

I've been in Grand Forks since December 2012 and I've never witnessed any crow harassing any bird or any other creature.  Why?  Did it happen when I heard big commotions outside but didn't come to the window?  Do I look up enough when I'm outside?  In Schenectady, New York, it seemed that the mobbing of creatures tended to take place around 4 pm.  Why?  What happens in the sky here around 4 pm, or when it's 3 pm (4 pm in the Eastern time)?.

What about the laughing sharp-shinneds up here?  I don't recall ever hearing their laughs followed by the screams of mobbing crows.  Lots of hawks eat different types of animals, but the sharp-shinned's preference is other birds.  Do crows consider sharp-shinneds too deadly to mob?  Back in upstate New York, red-tails seem to be the bird of choice for the crows to assert themselves, and while red-tails do eat other birds, rodents are the preferred choice.  But what about that massive bird I saw in upstate New York?  Did that bird prefer rodents?  Did the crows think that bird was a threat, but not an extreme, deadly threat like the sharp-shinneds?  Perhaps it's just a coincidence that I never witnessed a crow mob a sharp-shinned.

And what about the crows up here in Grand Forks?  Do they really live their lives mob free and take a "live and let live attitude?"  Crows in general are known for mobbing other creatures.  Are these crows just different?  And why are they so brown when the sun hits them just right?  I'm still trying to figure that out.  Am I dealing with a kinder, gentler subspecies?  Who are these crows?

Memories of a Fish Crow

I remember those days back in upstate New York when I longed to hear the whimsical call of the fish crow.  Those days are in the past, since I moved over 1,000 miles away.  But the other day I heard a quirky call.  I don't remember what it was, but just the quirkiness of it reminded me of a fish crow.  I believe the call was crow-like.

I remember the day I identified the fish crow.  Fish crows in Schenectady, New York are rare, but they do exist.  This is the entry I have on my wild bird life list- the journal, not the website. (They sometimes differ in what I write.)  I wrote it here as it appears in my journal: 

"March 16, 2003 

 Morning

Union College, Schdy, NY

Kept this off my life list long enough.  I waited, maybe 2 years.

Heard AH-OH before, and nasally CAWS, but I needed to hear that Uh-Uh.  I didn't.  I heard Uh-Huh with the accent on the first syllable, sounding almost like Uh-Uh.  It was in the fish crow voice.  That was enough for me.  

Bird flew overhead in the sun[light].  It was almost spiritual.  I saw with naked eyes.  With outstretched wings it flew."

I remember how frustrated I was that the experience only lasted a few seconds because a woman drove up and asked me for directions.  I'm not sure if I was able to help her, but I remember she drove off without even thanking me for my time.  I waited and I waited all that time to identify the fish crow with confidence and this lady suddenly ended my experience.  

But though it was only couple of seconds- to see it flying overhead in the sunlight was a beautiful experience.  

The fish crow "will feed inland but usually feeds in shallow waters along coastline and salt marshes" (Aslop, 2001, p. 497).  They eat a variety of things, including berries, some fruits, fish, and different types of crustaceans.    This clever bird will fly with a mollusk in its beaks and will drop it on a hard surface in order to break it open.  

Parenting duties are shared, as both Mom and Dad incubate eggs.  It takes between 16 to 18 days for eggs to hatch.

Fish crows are capable of hovering- something I have never read about any corvid.   They will hover above while searching for food, then come down out of the sky to make the catch.

Fish crows have short and very nasally CAWs that may even be more nasally than American crow juveniles.  And then, there is the wonderfully funny UH-UH call that sounds like they are saying "No-No."  Their calls are funny and whimsical and I miss them terribly.

Many years ago I read (the source escapes me) that if you want to know if the crow you've come across is an American crow or a fish crow, just ask.  Ask the bird if it is an American crow (I have to add- while keeping a proper distance to not crowd it).  If the bird replies UH-UH, then you know it's not an American crow, but a fish crow!

Sources:
Birds of North America: Eastern Region
by Fred J. Alsop III
DK: New York
2001

All About Birds
Cornell Lab of Ornithology
http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/fish_crow/id.aspx?spp=fish_crow

Awake!

Today I awoke to the sound of crows around 6:40 this morning.  There was a great deal of noise outside.  However, the vocals seemed to be different than the calling back and forth (complex) conversations.  This type of interaction I did hear at least once before, weeks back: one crow starts cawing and the others join in.  I think the first bird only gets out only one caw before the others join in- in near...near unison..at least today it was not unison, but near unison.   I don't know how many times a series of unison calls were expressed but I think it may have been several or near several times.  There were breaks between the series of unison calls, but I did not get a feeling that the series of vocals were calling and answering sessions.

I wrote about this type of interaction in "The Chat," an entry from July 17, 2014.  I went back to that entry, and interestingly enough, I interpreted the different series of unison calls as calling and answering sessions- a conversation.  I did not interpret the series of calls as a complex conversation (where different birds participate singularly for an extended period of time), but I did interpret it as a conversation.  Why did I interpret the series of unison vocals as calling and answering sessions that day, but not interpret the series of unison vocals as calling and answering sessions today?

Perhaps it's because on July 17th I was outside with the birds.  Today, I was not.  I suppose what happened is that on July 17th I saw or sensed one bird in a particular tree start the cawing and the others joined in, and then another bird I saw or sensed in another tree some feet away start the cawing and the others joined in- and I interpreted the second series of calls as an answer to the first series of calls.  I think that might...might have happened.

At home I can also get a sense of call and answer sessions without looking outside based on where the calls are coming from.  But today, the calls just seemed close. I have no other information, but I do think the calls were further away that I thought.  In regard to the room I was in today, the window was way above my head and I got no sense of what direction those calls were coming from.  I believe at the time I may have even assumed that it was the same bird starting the unison calls because I had no sense of distance between the series of unison calls.

At least once, one series of unison vocals was followed by caws from a few crows.  There seemed to be at least one single caw and before that maybe...maybe two birds cawing at the same time.  However, it wasn't organized like the unison calls, and there were only very few birds cawing at that time.  I believe this very short session was between two of the unison series.  

My impression was that those few birds were not answering the preceding unison call.  But I don't know. I don't even know if the first bird that starts the unison calls stops when the others join in.  I suppose within a particular series of unison calls, the birds joining in could actually be answering the first bird who caws alone.  But I don't get that impression.  Maybe it's because when the other birds join in, it seems to follow so closely in time behind the first call.  I get the impression the birds join in before the first bird stops talking...hmm, I just don't know.  There's so little I know.  All I can do is keep writing and questioning.

Hoppin' and Cawin'

The other day, someone in my Crow group (Facebook) referred to crows as hopping.  Crows are rather large birds, and most large birds don't hop.  However, I did read about a magpie hopping, which is a cousin to the crow.  Well the other day, I did see a crow hopping.  It was hopping in a tree among the leaves from branch to branch.

This crow was expressing vocals and I found myself wondering if there was a pattern to its calls.  The crow expressed several series of AH sounds.  Sometimes they came 4 at a time, one right after the other.  Sometimes it was 5 in a series.  One, maybe two times there were 3 in a series.  It seemed that 4 AHs in a series was expressed the most.  But why?  What does 4 AHs mean?  How do 4 AHs differ from 5 AHs?  Why was 4 AHs expressed the most in the time I was observing the bird? I didn't notice anything unusual about the AHs.  No one AH sound was dragged out or was expressed in a harsh manner.  The crow went back and forth in regards to the number of calls in a series.  (Sometimes it would be several instances of 4 calls in a series, then 5, then back to 4 and so on.)

Changes

Something's happening, I'm not sure what.  There's something in the air.  Sundays are quiet now.  The crows have stopped most of their extended conversations.  There used to be conversations during the mornings on other days of the week.  There are a few now, but not regularly in the morning and certainly not on Sunday mornings.

I've seen a group of crows at various times, but they are usually silent now, and many times they are on the ground.  There's something in the air.  Things feel different.  Things smell different.  We are only in August, but it sounds like Fall and smells like early Fall.

Back in upstate New York, the crows were not that noisy compared to the crows of Grand Forks, but  they were even more quiet during the fall and winter.  However in Albany, New York after summer, I witnessed an enormous gathering of crows during the evening with lots of talk, although they just appeared to be making noises, instead of having conversations. But maybe that's my ignorance.  Maybe there were conversations going on- more than one, and instead I labeled it as gibberish.  It happened at a bus stop on the SUNY Albany campus. I stood at the bus stop on the campus of SUNY Albany in amazement.  The enormous cloud of birds traveled in a large circle, settling down in trees then getting back up again and flying.  There was this incredible thing going on in air, but no one seemed to notice but me.  I didn't live in Albany, so this was not something I could witness on a regular basis.  During other times of the year, I did not witness extended vocal sessions at SUNY Albany.  In fact, the whole time I lived in upstate New York, I witnessed very few extended conversations.  The most memorable one came from the trees in Schenectady, New York. It was a nice day, probably during the summer.  It was on the Union College campus.

My best friend spoke of the post-summer gathering of crows he saw in Schenectady New York near our home in the early morning.  I myself witness the gathering of crows near our home- a very small number, perhaps less than 10.   In Grand Forks, I've never seen a very large gathering of birds.  Perhaps I've seen at the most, less than 13 birds this summer and only a few birds together post-summer last year.  But this time, I'll be actively looking for them and watching.  We shall see what happens.

Flowers on a Sunday Morning

Like clockwork, it was another Sunday morning where the crows were gathered in the same general area for an extended conversation.  It's gotten so regular that I've decided to make Sunday morning at 9:30 am crow time, and be prepared with a recorder, some paper, a pen, and camera.  

When I pulled back the blinds I saw two crows strolling down the street.  A third one chose not to go and had its head and back facing me. I could see the wind turning up its feathers.  I got the impression that this crow was not a fan of the mighty winds that were blowing.

Before leaving, it tried to pluck a flower.  There's something about this little tree.  This is the third time I have witnessed a crow trying to pluck a flower from this tree, but they never can do it.

The crows concentrate on the bottom branch on the left side that hangs down very low. The crow stood next to the tree and tried get a flower from the branch that was near to the ground.  Once I saw two crows trying to pluck flowers from that same tree.  One stood on the ground next to it and concentrated on a flower near the ground.  Another one perched on the same branch but higher up and tried to pluck a flower. 

I've never in my life seen a crow try to pluck a flower before I came to this area.  Why do these crows want the flowers from this tree?  Do they actually eat them?  I've never heard of that before.  This warrants an  investigation.

The Chat

The other day I had the most satisfying experience that I've had with the crows since I got here.  They were on the grass all in the same general area.  Then they took to the trees, which might have been because of my presence, but some of them chose trees that were close to me.    In the trees, they were talking back and forth.  The conversations were most interesting.  One bird would start cawing.  Right after that bird got just one caw out, another one would start.  They would caw over each other, but only after each bird got out one single caw.

One bird was in a tree with low branches.  It was quite close to me.  Another one joined it.  The two of them faced each other and began to have a conversation...facing each other and chatting like girlfriends. One talked and the other one answered.  The conversation was very short- just seconds.  Still, seeing that fascinated me.  Then as I left, a crow on a wire above me was cawing.  It's head was turned, facing Southwest which is were the trees were, (although it was looking somewhat downward and not up where the leaves of the trees were).  But  most crows usually just look ahead when they caw.  Not this one...Southwest...did it want to look toward the general directions of the birds when it cawed?  Was this on purpose?

Yapping on a Sunday Morning

           The crows in Grand Forks, North Dakota are like no crows that I have ever experienced.  Here in Grand Forks, they are much more vocal.  Conversations are common and lengthy.  This morning while walking I witnessed the second of two morning conversations, the first occurring earlier when I was home.  Vocals were short, high-pitched  AHs that sounded like the yappings of chihuahuas.
           Today I heard screams in the sky.   They were hawk screams.  It wasn't being chased or bothered by any crows, it was just screaming while it flew.  This reminds of of the fact that I have wondered why crows don't gang up on the hawks up here and send them packing out of the area like the do in Schenectady, New York.  It's really interesting to see, although I feel bad for the hawks.  In Schenectady, lone crows have taken on hawks and have chased them...still, here in Grand Forks, the hawks may scream while flying, but the crows are definitely the dominant ones!
            

The Gabbin' Continues

          A little while ago I went to take out the garbage.  I seemed to come across a continuation of the conversation.  There were 2 crows on the ground, but the vocals seemed to be coming from the trees.  Again, there was a crow talking in a high pitched voice and another crow talking in a lower pitched voice.  The second crow seemed to be answering the first one.  
          From what I can tell, crows don't seem to have distinctive voices, except in the case of younger crows and adults.  I do wonder why one was high pictched and the other crow spoke in a lower pitched voice.  I know that differences in volume mean something.  I do believe that differences in pitch and differences in intensity may mean certain things as well. Is there a hiearchy among the crows?  I don't know.  Does the difference in pitch come into play?  I don't know.  Crows are family birds.  I have never read about hiearchy in crows.  But is there a social hiearchy within a family of crows? What does this difference in pitch mean?  It's going to be an interesting summer!

Update on 06/23/14:  I found out that crows do have distinctive voices.  Perhaps the difference in voices had nothing to do with social status.  There is so much that I have to learn!  All I know is that crows are fascinating and their language is complex!

Gabbin' on a Sunday Morning.

          This morning I heard a conversation outside.  My knowledge of this morning is completely by sound, as the shades were closed and I was on the computer.  It sounded like two crows calling back and forth to each other.  The first one expressed a series of AHs.  The second one answered back.  The first one talked in a high pitch- possibly the highest pitch I've ever heard from a crow.    At least one time when a crow answered back, the AHs changed.  The first AH was higher followed by at least one lower pitched AH, possibly more. There appeared to be a few calling and answering sessions.  The conversation seems to be continuing but much further away now.

Summer

          In Grand Forks we seem to go from winter to fall, back to winter, to summer...at least that it seems like.  No matter what the date is, it seems like, at least for now, that we are in the middle of summer.  Gone are long spans of quiet days and now the crows seem to be in full swing.  There are a variety of vocals being expressed now- some sound more demanding than others.

          The other day I saw a crow fly by.  I heard AH-AH.  The second AH had a different pitch than the first AH and it was slightly more elongated. I heard this vocal event twice.

          One day from the bathroom window, I could hear some kind of uproar outside.  It was like nothing I had ever remember hearing, not even when the crows surrounded some poor trouble making hawk on a college campus in Schenectady, New York.

          Crows call while flying, something which I have only witnessed in some birds:  common swifts, common nighthawks, and killdeers are birds that come to mind.  Crows also call when perched.  Their many calls seem to have a purpose...much more than "get away from my nest," or trying to attract a mate...which I don't know is even true for them.  Speaking of mates, the other day I saw some interesting movements and wondered if I was watching mating rituals.  There were two crows involved and flying took place over a very small area among the trees.  At least one of the crows would fly down from a tree towards the ground and then fly back up in a sweeping motion.  After watching it some times, the movements seem to have a purpose, at least to me.  More observations are needed!

Spring

          It's been a long, rough winter.  It's early April, and yet snow is everywhere.  The crows had been so quiet these past months.  I remember one very cold day this winter seeing two crows standing in the snow, one right behind the other.  They were silent.  I can't imagine what it must have been like for them to experience this extremely cold winter.  I believe on that day the wind chill factor was 42 degrees below 0.  I saw them while I was getting in a cab to go to school.
          Some weeks ago, they became quite vocal again, although they haven't nearly reached their full noise potential yet.  The other day I saw two crows in a parking lot between two parked cars next to something that appeared to be a bag from a fast food restaurant.  One of them was dragging the bag with it's mouth even though a puddle of water was right there.  The drags were short efforts, not one long drag.  After I passed the car that impeded my vision from them as I was walking, I saw that they had been successful with the bag. They had come out between the two parked cars and the bag was with them.  One of them used it's beak to turn the bag upside down and food came out. One of them picked up some kind of nugget with its mouth. It was really something to watch, as crows are so intelligent.
          Although it was a nice experience, I still feel somewhat disconnected to them.  Back in Schenectady, New York, I felt like I was "right with them."  But these crows are different.  I feel no connection to them and I don't know why.  Maybe it's the environment I'm in.  It's much easier to feel connected with animals when you are in a park or a college campus that is stretched out.  This campus isn't, too open, at least in the areas I usually see the crows.  There are houses and buildings all around and I don't feel my heart opening up.  Is it me?  Or, are these crows just so different?  I will tell you though, these crows have guts!   I know crows can be bold, but one crow was perched on a sign and someone walked right by.  That person was very, very close and that crow showed no fear...did not flinch...did not fly away.  I think that other birds would have just naturally flown away.  But I think it takes more for a crow to be scared.  Still, the person was soooo close.  I'm guessing that this is a wonderful sign, that they crows have not been persecuted or bothered in this area.  I'm happy for them.