{"id":6527,"date":"2017-12-24T11:24:19","date_gmt":"2017-12-24T19:24:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/larryeifert.com\/?page_id=6527"},"modified":"2017-12-24T11:24:19","modified_gmt":"2017-12-24T19:24:19","slug":"2015-06","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/larryeifert.com\/wordpress\/published-writings-and-art\/salish-sea-stories-48-north-magazine\/2015-06\/","title":{"rendered":"2015 \u2013 7 Northwestern Crow"},"content":{"rendered":"

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And just why is this guy doing a crow page in a sailing magazine? Because they\u2019re not just crows, a common bird that everyone knows, but a Northwestern crow. Yes, we have our own crow species! Looks exactly the same but smaller, \u2018KAWWW\u2019<\/em> sounds the same but deeper and hoarser voiced. If you\u2019re on or around salt water in the Salish Sea and north all the way to Alaska, likely the all-black beach bird you\u2019re looking at is a Northwestern crow. Problem is, you can\u2019t be sure because in urban areas they now mingle, mix and interbred \u2013 but once you get to the Olympic Peninsula, you can be fairly confident you\u2019re seeing one of these guys.<\/p>\n

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By far, the best trait you can look for are their clamming skills. Browsing the shoreline wrack for anything edible, they\u2019ll often pick up a live cockle or clam, fly straight up to about 30 feet, change course to level off \u2013 and drop the shell to the rocks below. Most of the time the shell breaks on the first try and down they go for lunch. Evidently they level off to see where the shell lands so they can grab it before a gull does. Normal American crows don\u2019t seem to do this, just Northwestern crows. On some beaches, I\u2019d have to say that of birds on the beaches, there may be more Northwestern crows than gulls.<\/p>\n

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Larry Eifert paints and writes about wild places. His work is in many national parks across America \u2013 and at larryeifert.com.<\/p>\n

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And just why is this guy doing a crow page in a sailing magazine? Because they\u2019re not just crows, a common bird that everyone knows, but a Northwestern crow. Yes, we have our own crow species! Looks exactly the same but smaller, \u2018KAWWW\u2019 sounds the same but deeper and hoarser voiced. If you\u2019re on or … Continue reading 2015 \u2013 7 Northwestern Crow<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":6453,"menu_order":83,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-6527","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/larryeifert.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/6527","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/larryeifert.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/larryeifert.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/larryeifert.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/larryeifert.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6527"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/larryeifert.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/6527\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6647,"href":"https:\/\/larryeifert.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/6527\/revisions\/6647"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/larryeifert.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/6453"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/larryeifert.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6527"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}