This week started out slow, me visiting Bo and delivering snacks and fresh water. Lorena was still spending most of her time on the nest, keeping the hatchlings warm, so I followed Bo around while he did stuff. Here are some shots of him posturing and calling out claims to his turf.
And him soaking something he found on the ground to soften it for the kids.
I keep trying to get pictures of the nest, but the tree keeps growing and obscuring my view.
The nest is on the left side of the image, near the middle, but only a portion of it is visible. I tried all week to get a glimpse of any kind of action going on in there, but had no success. This shot I got from below late afternoon did let me see some of the details, though. I can see from the way the branches are curved why Bo and Lorena picked that spot. It makes a good support base.
I got some good Bo hugs.
And a shot of Bo going into the nest.
And coming out.
And a shot of Lorena peeking out at me.
For the record, the only reason I know this was Lorena was because Bo was on the ground next to me at the time, and Lorena flew out shortly after and landed nearby. There is no way I could ID a crow from such a distance. The closest I’ve come to that is with Bo, but that was when he made a call and I recognized his voice.
I may have mentioned about a thousand times this week that I got a new camera. I was really stoked to be getting such good shots of my buddy.
I get worried sometimes that I am bothering him, following him around like Bo’s paparazzi, but then I catch him looking at me like this:
Or doing something playful like this:
And I know he’s as stoked on this friendship as I am. This week he even gave Pilot (my dog) a happy swoop like he does with me.
Mid week, Lorena started to come down more. (Bo left, Lorena right.)
Lorena coming in for a landing.
She ate and drank ravenously.
When female crows nest, they lose a lot of the breast feathers so that they can transmit their body heat to the eggs. Hopefully now that the eggs have hatched, she’ll start filling in again. Her legs look so long and skinny right now without her crow pants.
I had trouble sleeping Wednesday night because I was stressed about starting a new job on Friday, so Thursday we went to visit Bo and Lorena super early in the morning. Lorena came right down to greet us. Poor mama, she was covered in baby poop.
But that’s good. Babies that eat a lot poop a lot. And they are both such proud parents.
Bo was totally in the zone with the foraging that morning. There are rumors that if you feed wild birds they will become dependent on you and won’t be able to survive on their own. Well, Bo is proof that this is wrong, at least for American crows in Portland. Not only is he good at it, he prefers it over free kibbles and peanuts.
He pulled up huge earth worms and tore them into bite-sized pieces. I caught it on video. If you are squeamish, you might not want to watch.
The most exciting foraging event (to me anyway) was watching Bo go spider hunting. It never occurred to me that crows ate spiders, although they are opportunistic feeders and will eat about anything. As I watched, I could see that spider hunting was as much a sport to Bo as it was a necessity. It was very entertaining for me as a spectator. After he'd filled his sublingual pouch with spider bodies, he flew off to the nest. Spider breakfast for baby crows.
We had a moment that morning, Bo and I. He returned from the nest and continued to forage. I pointed out a spider to him that was hidden on a trash can. He jumped up on top of the lid and looked, but I guess it wasn’t to his liking. Then we made eye contact, and it felt like we could see each other’s souls and feel all kinds of love and magic and so on if you believe in that kind of stuff. Intuitively, I made the warbling coo sound that crows make when they preen each other. It sounds kind of like “glottle-oddle.” I’m sure my accent is horrible, but whenever I do it around Junior he runs over to his dad and bows down in front of him and asks to have his neck preened. Well, much to my astonishment, Bo turned to the side and bowed his head. I reached out, trancelike, with one finger. Slowly. So slowly. Bo stayed in position. And then, when my finger was about two inches away from actually touching him, he snapped out of the trance like “OMG WTF am I doing I’m not ready for this level of trust yet!!”
I can totally relate, Bo. No offense was taken.
On Friday morning I was super bummed that I had to go to work that afternoon. Pilot was bummed, too, and we were both sulking. I think Bo could tell I was sad, because he stood on my head a bunch of times when we visited. (The job isn’t bad at all, I just wanted to hang out with my dog and crows instead of work.)
Bo had been coming near to my apartment window all week, checking things out but still not approaching the actual windowsill. About an hour or so after our Bo time I was inside my apartment, getting ready for work. The window was shut, the blender grinding away at my work smoothie while I rushed around getting ready to go. Then I saw something moving out of the corner of my eye. I looked over and saw this:
My day was so good after that.
Saturday when we visited I checked on the nest again. Trees grow fast. The view of the nest is almost completely obscured now by a bunch of pine flowers that look like they’re flipping me the bird.
But no matter. I’m fine with not getting a shot of the nest if it means the kids are safe from predators.
Bo was looking very proud.
And Lorena, poor sweet little lady, was still covered in all kinds of poo.
I hope she can get a bath soon.
I’ve read that when crows have growing chicks in the nest, they will resort to some pretty bold acts to make sure that they get enough to eat. There are even reports of crows killing small animals to feed to their young. I guess in Bo’s case, his bold acts are more along the lines of walking into my apartment like it’s no big deal. This happened ALL DAY Saturday while I was working at the computer. One of these days I’m gonna fall asleep with the window open and wake up to a ransacked apartment with peanut shells and crow poop everywhere. It’s gonna be great.
I hope you’ve enjoyed this post! If you’d like to learn more about my friendship with Bo, please read my blog An Unexpected Friendship.
I am passionate about crows and post obsessively about all that I learn from them. If you are interested in learning along with me, please do follow me!
Thanks for reading!
