My crow

My first data entry into the Project FeederWatch was not entirely impressive, but it was fun. As of this week, there were 11 species of birds who visited my feeders over a two day period. Each entry counts the greatest number of birds that visited at one time, not a cumulative number. It’s too bad that squirrels and chipmunks don’t count.

3 blue jays
7 dark-eyed juncos (slate-colored form)
2 house sparrows
1 song sparrow
4 black-capped chickadees
2 white-breasted nuthatches
5 tufted titmice
1 downy woodpecker
2 northern cardinals
1 American crow
2 American goldfinches

(3 squirrels)
(2 chipmunks)

The crow was my most interesting customer. I like crows. They have enormous personality. Usually our crows tend to show up in bunches—on trash day. But this crow was alone and maybe that was the whole idea. He discovered that I’d strewn some peanuts and cracked corn on top of the woodpile’s tarp and, boy, was he a happy fellow. He didn’t make a peep to alert any of his buddies.

Between times, he investigated the chain on the platform bird feeder. That feeder is too small for a crow to sit on, but he thought that its shiny chain was something else. He yanked on it, tugged at it, poked it...gave himself quite a workout.

That gave me an idea. I rummaged through the junk drawer and found a little key chain with a shiny thingamabob on the end of it. I took that outside and draped it over the edge of the platform feeder.

It didn’t take long for the crow to find it. He strutted back and forth underneath for a couple of minutes, working up his courage. Then he reached up and grabbed it. He carried it over to the woodpile and dropped it so that he could take a closer look. What a fine key chain. So shiny. So intriguing. He loved his new toy.

He picked it up and flipped it around a few times. Dropped it, picked it up again. And finally decided to fly off with it. It’s anyone’s guess where he put it for safekeeping, but soon he was back without it to gobble up some more cracked corn and peanuts.

I’ll keep my eyes peeled for other shiny trinkets to offer him.