Author Topic: Curious  (Read 2534 times)

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Offline Marc St Louis

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Curious
« on: June 14, 2017, 10:20:20 am »
Drove to Ottawa yesterday and saw a couple interesting things, one much more interesting than the other.  The first was a couple Moose on the side of the road staring at each other, must have been love  :D

The second was something I have never seen before, it kind of alarmed my wife because I couldn't take my eyes off of it and at 60 MPH not a good thing.  It was a Crow flying overhead being harassed by a bird.  Now I have seen this many times but what was different about this was the bird was very small, about the size of the Crow's head, and it would land on it's head for a few seconds till the Crow got tired of that and would flip upside down and then the cycle would start all over again.  It was mesmerizing to watch.  I wish I could have stopped to see how it ended
Home of heat-treating, Corbeil, On.  Canada

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Offline DC

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Re: Curious
« Reply #1 on: June 14, 2017, 10:27:20 am »
That would be something to see. You'll remember that. The Weather network has a video of a crow landing on an eagles back. I wonder if this kind of thing happens more than we realise.

Offline BowEd

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Re: Curious
« Reply #2 on: June 14, 2017, 10:39:44 am »
We see that here quite often Marc.With turkey vultures hovering and and the very protective red winged black bird landing and harrassing them.They get on crows heads too till they get out of the area basically.
Red winged black birds make their nests on cat tails and reeds lots of times or trees along a pond.While fishing if a person gets into their area of where their nest is the dive bomb relentlessly.
They realize birds like crows and vultures are a threat and a competitor for food also.Blue jays and robins here are just as protective this time of year during nesting season that is.
Crows do the same thing to owls and hawks here.They hate each other.
BowEd
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Ed

Offline RBLusthaus

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Re: Curious
« Reply #3 on: June 14, 2017, 11:53:21 am »
Common sight by me, is that the crows will harass the hawks and the sparrows (many at once) harass the crows.  I assume both behaviors is to protect the nest or young.  Really cool to watch - and listen to as it can get to be quite loud if the hawk does not leave the area at once.   

Russ 

Offline Marc St Louis

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Re: Curious
« Reply #4 on: June 14, 2017, 12:42:39 pm »
I've seen Blackbirds harass Crows and Ravens many times but these birds are big compared to what was bothering this Crow.  I've never seen a Blackbird land on a Crow, only make its life miserable. The only thing I can think of that is the size of a Crow's head is a Hummingbird and if it was that then it was pissed.
Home of heat-treating, Corbeil, On.  Canada

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Offline Pappy

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Re: Curious
« Reply #5 on: June 15, 2017, 03:28:57 am »
Our blue birds do that to the crows around here all the time, the crows have been robbing there nest and I guess they got tired of it, >:( worse this year for some reason than normal. I took one of the crows out last week and haven't seen any around in days now, guess they finely figured out they ant wanted. :)
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Offline Patches

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Re: Curious
« Reply #6 on: June 15, 2017, 08:34:15 am »
Yep, that is normal behavior for a little bird defending its nest.  I have seen a few times though when it backfired and the larger bird (in these cases hawks) rolled and actually caught the smaller bird in midair. 

Neal
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Offline Dakota Kid

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Re: Curious
« Reply #7 on: June 19, 2017, 01:43:18 am »
Crows are wicked smart Pappy. If you shoot at one more than once from the same spot it won't return to that location again and neither will it's offspring. Somehow they have the ability to describe known dangers to their young. If you call one in with a mouth call and it busts you, it will never again respond to that particular call. That's why most crow hunters carry several calls on their lanyard. According to intelligence tests crows and ravens are smarter than chimps(and probably some humans).
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Offline BowEd

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Re: Curious
« Reply #8 on: June 19, 2017, 07:58:33 am »
Was driving along yesterday with Robin back from a greenhouse and seen 2 red tailed hawks one chasing the other in front of it that had a small snake in it's talons.
BowEd
You got to stand for something or you'll fall for anything.
Ed

Offline jaxenro

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Re: Curious
« Reply #9 on: June 19, 2017, 10:33:48 am »
Smaller birds will attack bigger ones to drive them away from a nest

Blue birds can be very aggressive and vindictive (if that's the best word) our cat got one once and killed it dragged it under a porch and the rest of them spent the rest of the afternoon trying to attack it

Offline willie

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Re: Curious
« Reply #10 on: June 19, 2017, 10:25:45 pm »
watched a sea gull pestering an eagle like that once. The eagle did a sudden barrel roll and grabbed the gull when he was upside down. Kept rolling, finished his 360, glided down to the water and landed on top of the gull. then the sort of worked him over with his talons like a baker kneads bread. Took off  after releasing the gull and flew away. The gull never moved, just sort of flopped over in the water and drifted away.