As Kevin McGowan recently wrote, Crows are wanna-be predators and don't quite have all the equipment or know how to be a consistent bird of prey (I paraphrased here; sorry if I got it a bit wrong). --Donna Scott ----- Original Message ----- From: Susan Fast To: 'CAYUGABIRDS-L' Sent: Wednesday, November 27, 2013 2:04 PM Subject: [cayugabirds-l] Crow-chipmunk
I've spent much of this morning watching red squirrel interactions in our yard; stuff I haven't seen before. Anyway, on to birds. We also have still one CHIPMUNK which has daily been filling its cheeks with seeds (yesterday it had a tail; today no tail, but that is a rodent-rodent interaction most likely). It was busy foraging when our 3 yard CROWS arrived and also started feeding on seeds. 2 of the crows soon flew off to the compost; the third remained and began sidling closer to the chipmunk. It got within 6", the chipmunk turned its back, and the crow reached down and grabbed it by the skin in the center of the back. Chipmunk twisted away and shot under a bush, the crow jumped back, then flew off. 5 minutes later, they were both back to the same spot under the feeders, about a foot apart, but this time the chipmunk watched the crow like a hawk and no interaction occurred. Several years ago, I watched a crow this close to a meadow vole (same size as chipmunk) and the crow hammered the vole twice with its beak and killed it. Why the difference? Steve Fast Brooktondale -- Cayugabirds-L List Info: Welcome and Basics Rules and Information Subscribe, Configuration and Leave Archives: The Mail Archive Surfbirds BirdingOnThe.Net Please submit your observations to eBird! -- -- Cayugabirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsRULES http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/maillist.html 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/Cayugabirds 3) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/CAYU.html Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
