The Second, Second Best Blog

For about a year now, there have been a couple of crows visiting the backyard, mostly when they think no one is around. They have learned that when the scrub jays come around, there are peanuts to be had. At first they would follow the jays and take the peanuts that were not so carefully hidden in the pine trees next door. For awhile I left a few peanuts on the patio table when the scrub jays stopped coming around for the day. I soon discovered that the crows were getting most of those. You can see them doing so in this video.

Eventually, they started coming around even when the scrub jays did not. One in particular has some peculiar feather vanes on his wings that appear gray at first glance. Its the only way I could distinguish him and why I was pretty sure it was the same one on repeat visits. He now frequently waits on the fence or in nearby trees when I am reading the paper on the patio in the morning. I can toss peanuts near him in the yard and he will fly down, pick them up and carry them away, returning in a few minutes for another. When he started this behavior, he was very hesitant. No matter which direction was the shortest route, he would always walk the fence to his right a few steps before deciding it was OK to go for the peanut.

He is sometimes joined by a slightly smaller, and slightly more fearful companion. If I throw out two peanuts, Big Boy frequently gets both. He gets the first one way back in his throat and can almost close his beak completely and then grabs the second one and flies away.

Getting video has been a bit difficult because they are very wary of any changes in the normal routine. I finally did get some by first placing a peanut on the backyard arbor and walking back to my usual spot on the patio to try to be both feeder and cameraman.