Lately crows seem to have invaded my neighborhood.  On my neighbors front yard a fast growing tree has reached huge proportions.  Neighborhood birds seemed to dislike and avoid the tree.  Till the crows arrived.  I can now understand the phrase a “crows nest” when I look up at the canopy. Before, blue jays, western, seemed to dominate the area, now they are all gone.  Occasionally I still have the mockingbirds around.  The cooing doves that used to nest in my grape are gone.  But I do not blame, at least for the present, , on the crows.  I now have a cat that likes to police the back yard as if it were her kingdom, believe me cats have more different personalities than human beings. I am wondering what should I expect now that the crows are beginning to establish themselves in the area.

Visu labu,

Have you seen Tippy Hedren strolling through your neighbhood?

The crow hangs around at the top of the tree and I have not seen any crows hanging around close to the ground level. Perhaps that will change once my plums and grapes start to ripen.  I do hear a lot of “crowing” especially in the mornings.  The crow seems to commute to some sort of “crow gathering”  or “crow city”.  Yesterday at dawn I could swear I saw the crow carry a little black briefcase when it left.

Visu labu,

I like this topic and hope it keeps growing since Latvians enjoy nature.
My yard backs up to a city park and trees are all we see from our deck, so naturally watching birds is one of my favorite passtimes. Last month
a pair of nuthatchers made a nest in the little bird house we attached to a tree trunk. They spent several days carrying their building material inside. Then the waiting and finally we
could hear the activity of the baby birds. The parents went non stop feeding them from morning till evening. When they finally left the nest,I missed them. I cleaned out the bird house and hoped there would be another pair come next Spring. Well, I didn’t have to wait that long. A
pair of bluebirds are working away now carrying their building materials into the same birdhouse. Soon there will be new baby bluebirds hatching and I feel so honored that they chose that tree with our birdhouse to build their nest.
Luckily there are no cats in our neighborhood. We
all have dogs for pets.

http://www.tv.lv/

Scroll down on the left side till you get to ‘Vides Fakti’ an intresting weekly program on Latvian ecology. Go back to the February program where they had a four week series on looking for the Latvian black stork ‘Varis’ in its wintering grounds in Ethiopia or the program on the ‘Papagailji of Latvia’.

What an interesting site.  There is too much there for one viewing. Loved the piece on Elina
Garanca. Will come back and look at the flora and fauna later.
Thanks Kaspar.

And to think…all this time I never looked downwards and beyond in this left hand column to ‘intereses’—well, maybe once, saw something about ‘makskeresana’, which I wasn’t too terribly interested in.  Neat, Kaspar, and I thank you too!

Irena

Bruno,

Any chance there might be an owl nesting in the area ?

We had a pair of great horned owls nesting in our yard and we would see small groups of crows sitting in the treetops making all kinds of noise especially at dusk and dawn. Once the owls moved on in late spring - we havent seen a crow in weeks.

While the owls were around, our birdfeeders were only sparsely populated also. On the positive side, I havent seen a ground squirrel or rabbit yet this year.

Vidas

Maggy and the King.

When we came to Bowen Mountain in early ’94, it was a delightful privilege to make friends with a Magpie pair and their offsprings. They were soon named Maggy and the King. King had a truly regal personality. The grace and assurance in his walk and song. It was easy to imagine a crown on his head and black velvet shoes with silver buckles on his feet as he surveyed his domain.

We were delighted to be woken in morning by the chorus of Maggy and the King , instead of traffic shaking the place as in our old abode. It was a privilege to sit down with King at the table on the front terrace and have a long conversation with him. He would take a delicate pick at the food, then talk long and softly about the things in his world. He would wait for me to say something back at him, then take another delicate pick, and talk some more.

Maggy was a good Mother. They had a chick when we came in ’94. Year after was she had an offspring we named Monte, then it was two – Heckle and Jeckel. What delight the chicks were, the way the played like all children, struggling over a small twig, rolling on the ground, and fighting over food. Then there was a year without chicks, as we had a bad storm and after that Maggy and the King did nor take food away. Nesting time always revealed little tidbits about the domestic life of magpies. Usually Maggy was very well behaved towards King, but when the nesting time came she rushed at the food, screeched at King and even dared to take a peck at him. At times Kings tolerance toward his wife came to an end and they have a real domestic.

Knowing that magpies live a long time, we were looking forward to a long a friendship with King and Maggy. In ’98 they had two chicks again Braveheart and Betty, but in October King did not come any more. It was after media frenzy about dive-bombing magpies, the police shooting one, after some hysterical complaint by somebody. At the time there were sounds of somebody firing a gun in the direction of Kings nesting site. I sincerely hope I am mistaken, that King died of natural causes not mans stupidity.

Kings demise revealed some interesting insight in magpie society. Not only the chicks became orphans, Maggy abandoned them, as there were strange males invading Kings territory and courting Maggy with wild singing in the trees. The chicks were old enough to be fed by us, and at times protected from the strangers that were having battles over the territory. The Maggie disappeared too, leaving the chicks in our car entirely. In the end we wound up with a pair on new magpies, that were a terribly pale reflection of King and Maggy. One of the chicks came for a visit a few times, but was chased off, by his mannerism it could have been Monte as he came readily to the food bowl and took food from hand.

The king is truly missed.

Monte 1999.    ©   

What a delightful story, Monte!  I really enjoyed
reading about your magpies. We don’t have any here. The only magpies I know are the ones in the
Disney cartoon “Dumbo”.  They sat on a telephone line and sang a ditty in a southern drawl. Loved it. Maybe someone can recall the name of that ditty???
Anyway, thanks for the post.

The crows are beginning to show their true feathers now that they have settled in.  Crows appear to be the Mafia of bird land.  Their up front activity has the appearance of taking care of the road kill in the city where I live.  They steal the chicks from the nests of other birds.  The other day I watched as a crow flew away from a tree where mockingbirds nest ,with a chick while three mockingbirds flew around the crow desperately pecking it.

It likely was the crows and not the owl that kept the other birds away from your yard.

Visu labu,

I like your description of the crows as the Mafia
of the bird kingdom. I had no idea they would go after baby birds. But now that you mentioned it,
I do remember a similar scene. Up in the air, several mockingbirds buzzing and dive bombing a crow. I just thought he got into their territory.
We have starlings that come in the winter to eat from the bird feeders. We call them the thugs
because they are so rude. All the other birds fly away when the pack of starlings arrives. The squirrels won’t even mess with them.
Our bluebird couple must have built their nest
because the male is now bringing food to her. I see her poke her head out of the opening when he arrives with dinner. She is barely blue, but the male is brilliant blue. They don’t mind if we sit out on the porch and talk. It’s so neat to watch them go about their business.

Back in the year 1950 the first summer camp for Latvian kids from Boston and the New England area was in Baldwinville, North Central part of Massachusetts, which is out in the sticks among things wild and woolly. It was a huge vacated resort building that had most likely seen its glory days in the by-gone years. We had the run of the whole place including a big library with old books and a dinning room that could cater to hundred plus. The windowed hallways along the periphery of the building had their ancient character and every morning we walked one particular hallway to rescue a dozen or more different bird species and set them loose. Some how they managed to get into the long hallway, got trapped and ended up desperately banging and scampering inside against the windowpanes. There were robins, blue jays, sparrows, wrens, larks, etc.

On separate occasions, the bird I remember most was the Whip-poor-will, as every night it would announce its name over and over until I fell a sleep. It wasn’t a lullaby but the sound of “whip-poor-will, whip-poor-will” was determined and pleasant. I haven’t heard Whip-poor-will as much since that eventful summer where the older boys caught snakes and skinned them to make ceremonial dress for their pirate outfits.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whip-poor-will

As for the crow family of birds my most frequent encounter is with the common raven, which I spot during my daily run along the Erie Canal. They will talk to me and I will talk to them, “caw! caw!” as they hop on both legs like a rabbit. They are the smartest of all birds. These two Wikipedia websites will provide quite a bit of detail about the crows (Latvian: vārna) and ravens (Latvian: krauklis) including related stories and legends for anyone interested in knowing more.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crow
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_Raven

Some of you may remember this folk song, also a children’s dance (rotaļa):

Krauklīts sēž ozolā,
Zelta kokle rociņā,
Ok tai ri-di, ok tai ri-di,
Zelta kokles rociņā.

Vai, krauklīt, tu redzēj’,
Kur aizveda mūs’ māsiņ’?
Ok tai ri-di, ok tai ri-di,
Zelta kokles rociņā.

After you have read these next two Wikipedia web sites on birds, list of birds and other links, I suggest you take your PhD exam to add another feather to the hat:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birds
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_birds

Cheers, Ivars

Thank you for the world of bird knowledge. Good thing I’m not working on a Ph.D. No way could I digest all that information. I did learn a thing or two from your post, like the difference between a crow and a raven and what they are called in Latvian. Is a magpie “zagata”?
Must be neat to hear a whip-poor-will.  We don’t have them here. Our songbirds are the Carolina wrens, mockingbirds, cardinals and some I have not yet learned. I enjoy them all.

  Bush Tales.

            Cockatoo Creek ravens.
 
To establish a relationship with all wild creatures, You have to live alongside them, in their environment. It means to camp in wilderness and go about Your business the same as the other inhabitants goes about theirs

      After 1974, we had 240 acre bush property, rather remote, no access road,no nothing but few bridal tracks left by cows that were taken in the walleyes amongst the sandstone ridges, the Sydney Sandstone as it is known geologically. After we managed to put in a four wheel drive track, things in the camping there became mot e civilized. There was open car port only the part closed in. there was sleeping platform of the ground with mattress on it.

I would go there for two weeks; even longer at times to keep the track open and try to build access to the walleye from were our temporary abode was located on top of the ridge top.

It was early mornings that a lot could be observed still in sleeping bag. There were the currawongs. They would brazenly invade the camp, land on the little table, or see if there is anything from the night before cooking. Then quails come around with their specific survival technique of feeding. I would leave them some seeds on the ground and the come and diligently clean up. Take a peck – then look up one way—-a peck—-look up the other way.

But I was going to talk about the teaching of unruly offspring’s. The Australian raven is more heard the seen. I knew there was a pair, they have rather large territories.
The only time I saw them was when I left the frying pan near the trailer and they come inspect it in the very early in the morning, before the flies or the ants get into it.

They are so carefully not to be seen by humans, the inspection technique was rater curious. One of them land openly on the trailer, the other comes sneaking trough the bushes from behind the trailer. If I as much as made a movement they be up and away. As far as the ravens were concerned I was intruder and bribery of leftovers was not going to make me acceptable, even if other creatures kept ignoring my presence.

Then came the day when there was high drama in the raven family.  Their precious child was sitting in a tree only dozen yards away and in full view f a human. The frantic flaying around and crowing just as frantically, made no impression on the chick. Sitting there, twittering his wings in the bird “feed me” manner, ignoring his parents calls.

  Finally it became to much too much for one of the parents. It came in at a full speed, and knocked the chick of the branch. He was half way to the ground before he recovered to fly. That was it! I newer saw the chick or its parents, only heard them. Wonder what they were telling the chick in raven language, but his offense was enough to apply more vigorous teaching method. Maybe there is lesson in bringing up unruly children of all kinds.

I am rather grateful that I had the chance to observe the elusive ravens. They are such magnificent birds, but I believe the only way to get close to one would be to rob a ravens nest and bring up the chick.

Not so in some tourist camping grounds. In ’89 we were in flinders Ranges, and camping at Wilpena Pound.The local ravens had no fear of humans, we hardly has started a fire to indulge in stake dinner, when half a dozen ravens were hanging round at close quarters. They must have educated themselves in smoke signals from human cooking fires.

May 2006 ©        Monte

The raven is suppose to be the most intelligent of birds. It is the only bird that will fly toward the sound of gunfire in a forsest because it knows that the hunter will clean his prey and leave meat behind.

The West Nile virus killed off 90% of the magpies around here. They are having a hard time making a comeback..