Saturday, February 10, 2007

Crow Ploughs!!!!!

On Thursday morning we and our visitors were treated to a really interesting and funny display from a couple of crows. Here's how John described it to the Shropshire Birds List:

"I saw what was, for me, a new example of crow behaviour this morning. Two Carrion Crows were foraging in several centimetres of snow on my back lawn in Church Stretton, picking up mixed seed intended for finches, blackbirds etc. They started off using a familiar back-and-forth bill "swiping"technique to uncover the seeds from the newly-fallen snow. After a few minutes, one of the crows pushed its head *completely* under the snow and started running forward, with its head entirely beneath the snow surface. This went on for 2-3 metres. It did this in an area where there was no bird food. After a few seconds, its companion started doing the same. It was great fun watching these energetic corvid snow-ploughs create long furrows through the snow cover of my back garden, although what they were doing is a mystery to me. Maybe they were trying to find food items beneath the snow or maybe they were collecting snow to drink or maybe they were just playing (it looked like fun) - I have no idea! The complexity of crow behaviour never ceases to amaze me."