FreeChile said:
When it was very young we fed it dog-food. Later we caught worms and things for it and when it was old enough to fly it pretty much fed itself (i.e. it would come back in the evenings without us needing to feed it properly - just treats).
Our neighbours had a pond and at the time of year when the tadpoles-just-turned-mini-frogs leave the pond en-masse the magpie went over there and ate loads of the little frogs. I think it would eat pretty much anything comprised largely of protein.
Tricky
Briefly immortal
Oh yeah? Well I once had a pet crow that was so smart that it learned to hover and eat out of the hummingbird feeder with a soda straw.hodgy said:
Bronze Dog
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Tricky said:
That's pretty impressive, and pretty close to a boundary in my head. Are you really being serious?Tricky
Briefly immortal
LOL. It should have been well on the otherside of that boundary. No matter how smart a crow is, it can't "learn to hover". I was just getting amused by the "my crow is smarter than your crow" stories, or shall we call it "oneupcrowship".BronzeDog said:
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Okay, that's what I was thinking it really was, but I generally try not to underestimate the intelligence of animals, despite what lies you may have heard from Ian.
I'm not trying to boast about my magpie - I find things like that interesting so I assume other people might too. I would like to hear other people's clever bird stories. I've got stories about other birds that we raised but the magpie was the cleverest.
Tricky
Briefly immortal
I'm just ribbing ya, hodgy. I like your story. But I seem to find almost everything funny. See my sig.hodgy said:
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Laughing has its risks, though. I once laughed so hard... well, I'd rather not go into that story, on second thought.
Another couple of crow stories
The crows in our area actively hunt rainbow lorikeets, usually they gang up on one individual and wear it down to the point of exhaustion. If the lorikeet tries to make a break for it, it’s quickly targeted using a sort of tag team. It does not appear to be very successful for the crows, as the lorikeet often finds a gap and flies very low and very fast out pacing the crows.
Crows on their own often get picked upon by smaller more agile birds, they stay on their tail and pester the living daylights out of them.
I once saw a bird actually teasing a crow by flying slowly in front, just as the crow was about to get a beak full, climb or turn to avoid, then, to rub salt into the already damaged pride and presumably tiring of the game, it whipped around and “predator suddenly became preyâ€.(tag your it).
The crows in our area actively hunt rainbow lorikeets, usually they gang up on one individual and wear it down to the point of exhaustion. If the lorikeet tries to make a break for it, it’s quickly targeted using a sort of tag team. It does not appear to be very successful for the crows, as the lorikeet often finds a gap and flies very low and very fast out pacing the crows.
Crows on their own often get picked upon by smaller more agile birds, they stay on their tail and pester the living daylights out of them.
I once saw a bird actually teasing a crow by flying slowly in front, just as the crow was about to get a beak full, climb or turn to avoid, then, to rub salt into the already damaged pride and presumably tiring of the game, it whipped around and “predator suddenly became preyâ€.(tag your it).
EHocking
Penultimate Amazing
[defensive] well, you DID ask...[/defensive]FreeChile said:
but to make up for it
ETA: Oh.... apologies - I loaded this quickly, so had not seen the second half of the animation. During my lunchtime, too.
Indeed! But I still find Mary Stewart's image unlikely. I mean crows would have to be very, very smart to tell the difference between an army parading on the 4th of July and one about to engage in battle, or a mob of protestors for that matter.Tricky said:
Mary Stewart was talking about the 4th century AD, when any large group of men on the move probably implied trouble. Though the Crystal Cave series is deliberately poetic in style and never meant to be taken as a source of information. Crows are so ubiquitous in the British countryside that some would certainly be stirred into flight by a group of mounted men. (Though a mob of crows are usually, though not always, actually rooks).
I have seen crows , in scores, landing in trees on the edge of a hayfield a farmer was about to cut. (They are after grubs etc which are exposed by the cutting. They watch to see where the tractor is going. The farmer confirmed that it regularly happens that they will be on the fence waiting when he arrives to cut or turn hay, but never if he is spreading fertiliser.
I once saw a large number of crows in the Algerian sahara, lined up in single file, with their feet in cool water which was overflowing from a tank. It took them about twenty minutes to form up after the leak started. It was the presence of the crows that alerted us to the leak.
I'm pleased to see we have so many crow watchers here. I've always been fascinated and entertained by them. I also think they are rather handsome birds. I get quite huffy when people dismiss them as dark, sinister and scary.
I have seen crows , in scores, landing in trees on the edge of a hayfield a farmer was about to cut. (They are after grubs etc which are exposed by the cutting. They watch to see where the tractor is going. The farmer confirmed that it regularly happens that they will be on the fence waiting when he arrives to cut or turn hay, but never if he is spreading fertiliser.
I once saw a large number of crows in the Algerian sahara, lined up in single file, with their feet in cool water which was overflowing from a tank. It took them about twenty minutes to form up after the leak started. It was the presence of the crows that alerted us to the leak.
I'm pleased to see we have so many crow watchers here. I've always been fascinated and entertained by them. I also think they are rather handsome birds. I get quite huffy when people dismiss them as dark, sinister and scary.
Free Chile,
Is the whole idea of crows following armies or following weak people in the desert that much different from seagulls following fishing boats? I don't see why you would discount it so much. How many parades/protests of thousands of people did they have back then? Besides, wouldn't parades last a relatively short time while an army be on the march for days?
Is the whole idea of crows following armies or following weak people in the desert that much different from seagulls following fishing boats? I don't see why you would discount it so much. How many parades/protests of thousands of people did they have back then? Besides, wouldn't parades last a relatively short time while an army be on the march for days?
In the case of the seagulls, the odors from the boat may be sufficient to attract attention. This may include smells of the equipment from previous catches or the smell, sight, and sound of the baits. In this case is just like giving them a good meal, they'll keep coming for more.aargh57 said:
It is logical that after a few battles the birds would simply hang around. But consider that battles also occur in different locations.
I used parades and demonstrations as an example. In the case of major cities, we have a good number of people moving at the same time and usually in the same direction during rush hour. If we followed Stewart's image, I don't see why crows shouldn't leave their roosts in New York's central park to guard the behaviors of the millions of pedestrians in that city, unless we say that these birds have unusual skills. Also, why wouldn't they vigilate armies and artillery equipment during training in forts and camps throughout the world? I mean we have wars going on right now. So the association between moving armies and food, would still be there.
I don't really think that Mary Stewart had that in mind. It is unlikely that her knowledge of 4th century animal behavior was at all accurate or relevant. Also, she lived during the 1900's and was very familiar with modern wars. So she probably projected her images of these wars into her novels. The crows in her novels are probably there simply for dramatic effect, coming from the image of the crow that we all seem to share, that of foretelling death. It is more or less like Teen Titans' character Raven, who is the spiritual one in the cartoon. Raven behaves nothing like a Raven, just like Stewart's crows, in that respect.Soapy Sam said:
So far as I'm aware, Mary Stewart is still alive, though she must be well into her nineties. What I mean is that the books are written from the point of view of a well educated man of the time- albeit one gifted with "The Sight"and other magical abilities, to whom the world is a mix of magic and hard reality. I would never suppose that "Merlin's"beliefs reflect the author's.
The first three are an excellent fictional tale of Dark Age Britain , by the way. Darn good read for a winter's night by the fire.
Back on topic, I recently watched crows harassing grey squirrels, magpies and a buzzard, all of which I suppose are dangerous to their nests. They're better than any soap opera.
The first three are an excellent fictional tale of Dark Age Britain , by the way. Darn good read for a winter's night by the fire.
Back on topic, I recently watched crows harassing grey squirrels, magpies and a buzzard, all of which I suppose are dangerous to their nests. They're better than any soap opera.
Free Chile,
Just wanted to point out that most birds have a very poor sense of smell, so while they may very well be attracted to a fishing boat for the other reasons you mentioned (sounds and sight of the baits(although I think they probably recognize the boats themeselves as you will see gulls flying towards boats from a distance that they couldn't see the baits, not to mention the fact that often times the fishermen aren't putting the baits out yet and the gulls are still hanging around)) the smell is probably not one of them.
http://www.earthsky.com/shows/shows.php?t=20041002
Just wanted to point out that most birds have a very poor sense of smell, so while they may very well be attracted to a fishing boat for the other reasons you mentioned (sounds and sight of the baits(although I think they probably recognize the boats themeselves as you will see gulls flying towards boats from a distance that they couldn't see the baits, not to mention the fact that often times the fishermen aren't putting the baits out yet and the gulls are still hanging around)) the smell is probably not one of them.
http://www.earthsky.com/shows/shows.php?t=20041002
Tricky
Briefly immortal
[slight derail]aargh57 said:
Apparently their sensory apparatus is quite different from mammals. When I was trying to keep squirrels out of my bird feeder, the bird store guy sold me some powdered hot pepper to mix in with the birdseed. Birds couldn't taste it, he assured me, but squirrels couldn't tolerate it. How true it was, I'm not sure, because I still got both birds and squirrels but fewer of both. I eventually stopped using it because it was too much of a pain-in-the-butt to mix it in every time I refilled the feeder.
[/slight derail]