Every week @nelinoeva hosts a fun contest in the Feathered Friends Community.
This week's theme is CORVIDS!!!!!
Weeeee!!
Since I am always sharing photos of my crow friends, I decided to go on a field trip to visit some Common Ravens that live near Mt. Hood, about 55 miles away from me and my Portland crows.
According to local urban legend, ravens used to frequent Portland until about a hundred years ago. The story is that, because of superstition and savage human ignorance, many ravens were killed, ultimately driving the population to rural and wild areas. I don't know if this is true, but I wouldn't be surprised. Corvids have excellent memories and pass on information about dangers for generations.
The ravens near Mt. Hood are wary of humans, but are used to scavenging for human food in parking lots near ski slopes and hotels. They let me get close enough to get some photographs.
I paid them in quality snacks.
Even though the ravens knew I was feeding them, they were still cautious. Every time they heard my camera shutter, they would hop straight up into the air like startled cats. I felt bad for startling them, but it made for some cute pictures.
⬆️This is my entry photo.
Next time I go visit them, I will just hang out. No photos. That way we can get to know each other without me traumatizing them in the name of art.
Grey jays are also common to the area around the mountain. They will boldly steal snacks from picnickers who aren't paying attention, sometimes right out of their hands. Some people call them "camp robbers." It's a good name for them. Once when I was camping I left some food in a closed container on the picnic table and went for a walk. When I came back, the little robbers had broken into it and eaten some. I didn't mind. I was impressed.
Unfortunately I didn't see any grey jays on this excursion, but I do have an old photo I took with an old camera some years back:
The Mt. Hood ravens aren't the only corvids I go on trips to visit. I have some corvid friends on San Juan Island, Washington, about 284 miles away, as the crow flies. I have to drive and take a ferry to visit these Northwestern Crows.
Each time I visit, it takes them a little while to remember me. But after a few snacks, it all clicks and they start following me around.
This buddy was eating a mussel before I started handing out snacks. They pick them off of rocks and then fly over the asphalt and drop them to crack them open. If that doesn't work, they leave the mussels on the street for cars to run them over. There is research documentation of crows that live near ferry ports collecting clams and mussels and leaving them in the staging area where cars park before embarking. The crows wait until the cars drive over them and crack the shells, then fly down and reap the rewards of their ingenuity.
Here are a couple videos of my Northwestern Crow buddies, one with a crow making neat clicking sounds, another with a bunch of crows casually snacking on the beach when suddenly their party is most triumphantly crashed by seagulls.
Crow Cam: Clicky Rock Hopper
Crow Cam: Gulls Gone Wild
I recently made some other corvid friends on a camping adventure in Utah.
These are magpies.
They live on an island 750 miles away from me. It's a long drive, but I have plans to go back and visit them at least a few more times in this lifetime.
I also sometimes drive about 80 miles to the beach, not just to go to the beach, but to see these American Crows:
I took these pictures in late summer, during molting season. They look pretty funny. Luckily, crows don't know how humiliating a bad photo is.
I don't actually have to leave town to see corvids. It's a lifestyle choice, not a necessity. There are plenty of corvids to enjoy in my neighborhood.
To my knowledge, there are three types of corvids that live within my city limits. One such corvid is the Scrub Jay. I affectionately refer to these buddies as "scrubbies."
I leave peanuts at my windowsill for scrubbies, and try to feed them when I am out walking. The crows compete with them for my attention, so the scrubbies and I haven't been able to forge any bonds, since crows always win. However, when there are no crows around, and the windowsill is peanut-less, they will sometimes make calls outside my window commanding me to toss peanuts onto the neighbor's awning.
I obey their orders whenever possible.
Clearly corvids are my masters.
Another jay that lives in the city is the Steller's Jay. They are very elusive, and as far as I know mostly keep to city parks. They are also excellent mimics. I didn't know this buddy was there until I heard a tree mewing like a kitten. I had to scrape around in the underbrush to get photos of this kitty.
And, of course, there are the crows. The ever-exciting, stunningly beautiful, fantastically fun, friendly, gregarious American Crows of Southeast Portland.
Charlie Chicken.
Biggie in a deeply intellectual conversation with Junior about peanuts.
Bo, the one and only.
Lorena, la Reina.
Biggie again.
Fun fact: when I found the very old photo of the grey jay, I also found this very old photo of a crow.
This was taken shortly after I moved to Portland, about 7 years before I started talking to crows, feeding them, hanging out with them, driving hundreds of miles to visit them, and letting them stand (and poop) on my head.
I wonder if this crow is still alive, and if I we are friends...
CrowTube Channel
Crowstagram
NFT Crowroom
A percentage of this post's rewards goes back to support the community.
All the stuff (pictures, words, etc.) I put in this post and any of my other posts is mine (unless otherwise stated) and can't be used by anyone else unless I say it's ok.