Crow Games: Train Blast

I was sitting in my car at the station waiting for my friend's train to arrive. After sitting there a while I heard a train in the distance. A couple of crows sailed down and settled on an old cracked concrete foundation about five feet square, located about eight feet from the tracks. Then more and more crows arrived in an obvious state of excitement, jockeying and switching positions on the concrete. As I sat there I wondered what they were up to, and why all the fuss. At that moment a train screamed through at top speed without stopping, creating a gale-force wall of air blasting them up and away, flapping and tumbling helplessly.

I enjoyed that, but not half as much as the crows did, I bet.

Crows Teaching Young

The crows are teaching the young ones to find food for themselves, This has been going on for two weeks. The parent will pick up a largeish piece of food from the grass. The young one will then make starving sounds and hound the adult, running alongside and reaching for the food. The grown one will not let the young reach the food. After 15 seconds or so, the parent will drop the food in the grass and pound at it with his beak. Then he will pick up one of the larger pieces he has broken off and keep up the appearance of hunting in the immediate area for more pieces. At first the young one will keep up the begging, but at some point he will look down, and almost surely, after a few glances, he will see the broken pieces of food and pick one up, ending the lesson for the day.