Crow Celebration

Crows LSE 9-23-14-6575

As I was going through the accumulated mail this weekend, I found the latest issue of the Chicago Audubon Compass and as I was reading down the list of presenters at the upcoming Birding America XI which will happen on March 19, 2016, I saw that Kevin McGowan from Cornell University is the keynote speaker!! I am so excited! Kevin McGowan studies CROWS, and I found I knew a lot of what he was talking about from his video presentation last year, “To Know The Crow: Insights and Stories From A Quarter-Century Of Crow Study” which is still available for viewing on the Cornell website.

Hot Dog Crows 2-18-15-4617

Kevin McGowan was all excited about following the peanut tradition, but I wonder if he knows the power of hot dogs. I bought some new hot dogs yesterday to start off the cold weather season. I may start spoiling my crow friends later this week. In the meantime here are a few crow pix that didn’t make it into previous posts.

Crow LSE Park 5-1-15-8879Crow 8-19-15-9335Cookie Crow 2-17-15-4418

I can hardly wait to continue my crow study which always goes better during the winter months when there are fewer distractions…

Crow Grant Park 078_1

Crow Post

Crow LSE Park 4-22-14 8596.jpg-8596

We now interrupt Spring Migration with a Crow Post. The weather has forced us to stay inside today as it rains, sleets, and – dare I say it? – yes – snows.

Actually it occurred to me that we’ve been distracted by all these migrants and we haven’t talked about Crows for a while. The Crows may have been sending me messages seeing as how the fact that I have more peanuts and I have not left the office to visit them doesn’t make sense to them at all. I filled the bag this morning that I would have taken to the park if it was worth going out.

But it’s unfair to write them off as just masterminds of Peanutology.

I want to share with you a marvelous video from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. It’s a webinar that I was unable to watch when it was originally broadcast but now it is up and available in the archives, and it’s all about Kevin McGowan and Anne Clark’s research on the American Crow and Crow Behavior. And it’s absolutely wonderful. The talk covers some things I already know about, but I learned a lot too, and felt compelled to comment on their blog (the Crows wanted me to push the cause for hot dogs!). I didn’t know, for instance, about the northerly crows that migrate, although it makes sense. And did you know there are 45 species of crows worldwide?

Crow LSE Park 4-22-14 8603.jpg-8603Crow LSE Park 4-22-14 8601.jpg-8601Crow LSE Park 4-22-14 8600.jpg-8600

 

Crow Millennium 2-18-14 5794.jpg-5794