Seasonal Signs (around the house)

Don't have a mantle in our house, but do have some nice high shelves the cats can't get to.

A crow dropped by for a photo shoot today

As I've told a few of you, I love crows but usually find photographing them difficult. They have this way of appearing and looking cool when I don't have my camera with me. So I run inside and grab my camera, only to come out and find no crows. But today was different! I was outside and one flew down across the street and said its little crow hello of "Caw, Caw". I ran indoors and grabbed my camera, and guess what? The crow was still there!

So I made the most of it and took tons of photos. The crow nicely posed, cawed, and even had a snack.

Caw Caw!

Nice legs! They look so funny with the reflection, like he's wearing a pair of capris.

As I said before, this crow had a snack when he found a worm in the water. I realized as I took this pic that I'd never seen a crow eating before. I was surprised to see it acting like the many robins I've watched, listening for and pulling out a worm.

I like the reflection in this photo. It gives the illusion that this crow is in the middle of a tug of war over that worm.

After the crow had a snack, it flew up into a tree. So I followed it to take a few more shots. You can see how sharp the beak is here:

This last one isn't a crow, but I liked the photo so I thought I'd include it. Look at those eyes! It's a grackle, which you might remember from one of my previous blog posts: Getting to know the grackles. Wow, looking back at that old blog post reminded me of how intense a grackle's eyes can be!

This one looks really focused on something. I'm glad that "something" wasn't me! Grackles mean business.

So, have you guys been doing any birdwatching now that spring is here? I'd be interested to hear about the kinds of birds you've been seeing. The bird species seem to vary a lot depending on where you are and which ones are migrating through.

Trickster and Wise Guys

I've posted here before about my admiration for the corvid family. Well, here's an interesting listen about the intelligence of one, the crow. It's the CBC IDEAs program "Wise Guys" about crows who "are no bird brains."

Magpie

Crow - North Bridge, Edinburgh

While in Scotland we saw a few magpies. You don't see them much in Newfoundland but when I lived in Alberta I saw them a lot. I was always impressed with the blue bits. Unfortunately I didn't manage to get a decent pic of one.

Fortunately this crow, greeting morning commuters, was far more cooperative.