Fishing Crow?

[piscatus absentis]

I watched this one today.  Now and then it would hop on to the stones in front of it and stick it's head in the water to pick up and eat (?) something. 

Has anyone else seen a crow doing this?

[superscot]

Bob thats a new one on me .....maybe was just doon for a wee drink !
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[paulr]

Similar to Col's experience I've seen a crow taking a dead roach from the surface.It happened at Snypes Dam years ago.
Paul

[Ian_M]

I've seen them finding then flying up and dropping shellfish

At out local golf course, they will pick up you ball and fly away with it. This behaviour seems to be a winter pastime and they stop doing it in the summer months.  When it first started some years ago it was like they all started to copy this one ball pinching b*gg*r and it became an epidemic. Only funny when not your own ball.

[Sandison]

Funny you should happen to mention that.... just for interest, a 'Crow' piece I published recently:

THE noise attracted my attention. I was shaving and glanced out of the window to identify the source of the commotion. In the field beyond our cottage a fierce battle was raging. Twelve hoodie crows were ?mobbing? a raven. Or they seemed to be, but as I watched I realised that the raven had attacked a single crow and had the unfortunate bird on its back, pinned to the ground with its wings flapping helplessly.

Crows don?t get a good press. Farmers abhor them because they are capable of preying on new-born or sickly lambs and sheep. Game keepers persecute them because they eat an enormous amount of the eggs of other birds. Even the saintly Royal Society for the Protection of Birds gets quite excited about the damage they do to nesting species. Apart from raven and hoodie crow, the race, Corvus, includes carrion crow, rook, chough, jay and jackdaw, but the raven is the master, several inches taller than any of its relatives.

Although the raven has an abundance of the unpleasant habits of its kind, it is admired by ornithologists; probably because of its size - larger than a buzzard - and for its soaring flight and aerobatic displays during the breeding season. Indeed, Corvus corax even gets an honourable mention in the King James bible: ?And he sent forth a raven, which went forth to and fro, until the waters were dried up from off the earth.? Other members of the crow family have fared less well, as is noted in the gruesome Scots poem, ?Twa Corbies?, about crows finding the body of a dead knight: ?I'll sit on his white hause-bane/And I'll pike out his bonny blue een/ Wi ae lock o his gowden hair/ We'll, theek our nest when it grows bare.?

But I have a soft spot for crows, born when I saw two carrion crows sitting side by side on a telephone wire near Scrabster House. As I passed, one bird, with its feet still firmly attached to the wire, did a perfect forward summersault, through 360? , to return to its original position. I stopped to watch. It did it again, and again, and a few moments later its partner did the same. I suppose, throughout history, humans have endowed the crow family with ethereal qualities, sorcery, black magic, portents of gloom, forecasts of happiness. As singer-song writer Robyn Hitchcock has it, ?If you want to know the future, the black crow knows.?

Twenty minutes into the fight outside my window the crow lay motionless. Then, for no apparent reason both ravens flew off. Immediately, the other crows returned and formed a circle round their stricken companion. One of the birds stepped forward and began pecking at the tail feathers of the fallen bird. Another joined it. Astonishingly, the wounded crow suddenly took to the air and its fellows formed a protective cloud about it. Just as suddenly, the ravens returned and I saw the injured bird falter and fall to the ground. It flapped into a patch of rushes and was lost from view.

One raven alighted at the sport, whilst the other took up station on a large rock in a clearing close by. As I watched the unfolding saga through binoculars, the raven waddled into the rushes and soon emerged, dragging the doomed bird into the clearing. I saw the raven hammer its huge beak into the chest of the crow. Then, I saw it tearing entrails from the crows lifeless body. The raven?s partner made no effort to join in. Was the attack motivated by the desire to kill and eat? If so, then why didn?t both birds feast on the corpse? If not for food, then why had the crow been so persistently attacked? A few moments later the ravens took flight and the last I saw of them was as they flew off to their of home amidst the cliff-scarred crags on the north face of Ben Loyal.

But that was not the end. The dead birds companions returned and, cautiously, as a group, began to move towards where the corpse lay. One by one they walked up and stopped for a moment by the remains of their dead companion. Then, as if by some hidden signal they too left the field. The whole incident had taken about an hour. Why it happened I know not, I had never seem anything like it before, and I was sure I didn?t want to see anything like it again. END

[Wildfisher]

A great piece Bruce  that brings to mind a remarkable incident I witnessed right here several years ago.

I was working in our then alpine plant nursery when a  commotion got up in the adjoining field.  A great flock of rooks was  making a heck of a dim and circling round a particular spot. I noticed, at this spot, on the ground,  a sparrow hawk  sitting on top  of what appeared  to  be a dead rook. Although I did not witness the ?kill?  it had clearly downed the rook earlier.

The flock of rooks continued to mob the hawk until it got fed up with it and abandoned  its prey.

Then, remarkably, the ?dead? rook came back to life, took to the air and flew off with its pals.

You just don?t see stuff like this when you work indoors, but I guess such dramas are played out on many a day. I was very fortunate to be in the right place at the right time.

[east wind]

Saw a similar incident from the kitchen window this summer. Hell of a noise prompted me to look out. Two BIG birds from the crow family were attacking a younger one (or a smaller species of from the crow family) with murderous intent.

So savage was the attack that men and women were stopped in their tracks. The wife decided enough was enough (don't mess with a Blackwood wuman) and ran outside to sort them out. The two flew off and the injured bird sought refuge below a heavily branched bush. After a few minutes she came back in. Then the big two reappeared and started circling the bush and poking beaks in.

This sequence went on several times, the big things were not to be denied and i don't think they were.

Why they went for it i don't know, but i doubt if it was for food.

Cheers,

EW

[.D.]

..............
But I have a soft spot for crows..............

So do I.

Some interesting observations  here:

http://www.orenhasson.com/EN/bait-fishing.htm

Cheers,

.D.

[Wildfisher]

The crow's biggest problem is he is black. This  is not the best  colour to be when your  principle foes are conservative game preserves and  farmers.

[alancrob]

At out local golf course, they will pick up you ball and fly away with it.

We had a couple this year who would land on the golf bag, pull at the zips and steal from the pockets. I heard of one case where it was either a wallet or a watch that went missing. Phones were also a target.  They seemed to know the places where bags would be left for a few minutes while we walked to the green.

I also had a weasel running across the fairway this year and having a rest under my bag halfway.

Good place to watch wildlife, especially if out early. Deer and foxes are regulars, rabbits are vermin, buzzards own the skies, Sparrow hawks have no fear and broonies are abundant in the burn.

It must be all that distraction that spoils my game every week!  :lol:

Alan