Cats and Trails and Garden Tales
Musings on cats, travel, gardens and life
Backyard Birding and Crow Youngsters
I sat on the back deck this morning, watching the birds. I usually look for the tiny ones: hummingbirds, chickadees, nuthatches, and finches as they are regulars, and plentiful.
But this morning I noticed a couple of crows in the fir trees. They were smaller in size, seemed unsteady on the feet, and occasionally fluttered their wings, calling for someone to feed them. Youngsters.
An adult was nearby, mom I assume, but I never saw her feeding them or come to their rescue. Perhaps she was teaching them how to search for bugs in the bark for themselves.
Not everyone likes crows, but I’m intrigued by them. Not only intelligent, they’re beautiful to me as well.
I watched their antics a while, then wondered if I’d discovered their nest. About 60 feet up in the Douglas Fir tree is a round mass of twigs and debris I never noticed before, a couple feet in diameter where the limbs attach to the tree. Hard to tell from the pictures with so much interference of surrounding branches, but you get the idea.
I’m happy the birds like it here. Not only for the tree canopy, shrubs and bird baths, but how about a stream too?
It turns on and off with the flip of a switch.
My husband built it years ago, but it was out of service for a few months while he renovated it.
I forgot how much I like it.
The birds do, too!
Hopefully, they’ll be back for a dip now that it’s flowing again.
~ Susanne
Cats and Trails and Garden Tales 
Nothing like the sound of burbling water to bring in our avian friends. As to the crows, the juvenile’s nasally, repetitive calling can get on one’s nerves after a while!
Yes, they love the flowing stream! The crows calling hasn’t gotten on my nerves yet, but we will see!
Lovely photos, Susanne!! The stream is a great idea for the birds and human nerves. Crows can be annoying but they have every right to live too. ❤️😊
Yes, indeed. Thanks, John!
You’re welcome, Susanne. 😊
We have both crows and ravens around here, though the latter seem to be more predominant where we live. They are bigger birds with stubbier beaks. Crows tend to hang with larger groups while ravens are more often found in pairs or alone. The raven’s tail feathers are more of a wedge or diamond shape. The crow’s distinctive caw is another way to distinguish them. Ravens are known to make a variety of sounds, including mimicking other birds.
Thanks for the info! That makes sense. I love seeing crows gather at dusk in great numbers, chattering away while they travel from tree to tree to roost. And I love seeing ravens, most often when we visit the national parks. I love their talkativeness!
That nest looks more like a squirrel’s nest to me… I love crows! They are so smart and I love to hear the raucous conversations they have!
That could be! Hard to get a good look at it, and I certainly have squirrels in the yard, too. 😊
So many pretty birds! And that stream seems a wonderful addition to your garden – I’m only sorry we can’t hear the noise it must make as it flows!
Thanks, Sarah! I tried to get a good video of the flowing stream, but they never turned out the way I wanted. I’ll keep trying!
I like Crows, and other birds from the Crow family, Jays and Magpies. They don’t visit my garden very often though, and I have never seen any juveniles.
Best wishes, Pete.
I see crows pretty regularly in the surrounding trees, but they dont drop by into the yard very often. And I dont remember seeing any youngsters before so they were fun to watch. 😊
Lovely photos. We have two varieties of crows: common and fish. We also have ravens occasionally. This summer three kinds of woodpeckers have had babies. They are hilarious to watch while they figure out what pecking produces food and what just noise(the gutters!)
Sounds wonderful. I bet those young woodpeckers are fun to watch.
beautiful