When I woke up on April 22nd, did I think I would be spending my day dashing back and forth across the busy intersection of Cedar and Green in University Heights with a recording device, or riding in the passenger seat of a car with my head out the window following a crow? Of course not, but it was the perfect way to spend Earth Day 2012.
The adventure began when Andy returned to our home from the grocery store with some edibles and the comment that he might have seen a Fish Crow in the parking lot. Seconds after unpacking the groceries (keeping a bag of chips for the road) and grabbing a camera, we were off! I wanted to see this possible Fish Crow while I had the chance! And maybe even help confirm its identity.
I would not call myself an expert on crows, but I do have an advantage over many people; for the past six years I have been caring for the animals in the Perkins Wildlife Center at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History, and the captive American Crows are counted amongst my favorites. And in exchange, I am counted amongst their favorite humans. That is what I assume, anyway, since every day when I enter their exhibit, within a minute I have one crow sitting on each of my shoulders and cawing in my ears. Up until the moment I was in the Heinen's parking lot scrutinizing the crow in question, I hadn't realized the full advantage of this squawking in my eardrums. But as soon as I heard our parking lot crow's vocalization, I agreed with Andy. It was not like any of the typical American Crow calls I was so used to hearing. Andy knew what Fish Crows sound like and I knew what American Crows do not sound like and our suspicion was growing.
It was time to document! After we spent several minutes running between grocery store and gas station parking lots with the recording unit and camera, our crow flew south, and the chase was on! Andy drove while I searched and soon we were tracking the bird through a Shaker Heights neighborhood. When the crow landed and we had parked the car, we were surprised to find that our possible Fish Crow had become six possible Fish Crows, with a nest to boot! We spent that afternoon observing the colony, and returned the following morning. When we felt confident with our identification, Andy hit the listservs with our photos and audio files, and crow experts agreed with the assessment. We had found the first documented Fish Crow nest in Ohio!
Michelle Leighty
Perkins Wildlife Center Co-Manager
Some photos of the Fish Crows and nest (click to enlarge):
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