Monday, November 10, 2014

American Crow (Corneille d'Amérique)

10 November 2014

     American Crow Corvus brachyrynchos is a very common species (in fact they roost by the thousands in Waterloo at night), but it has been a bit of a nemesis for me in terms of photography, and today was no exception. The birds are very wary of humans, resulting from a long inheritance of persecution I suspect, and the fact that they are superficially a monochrome of dark black, makes for difficult photography.
     This bird was bathing in a puddle in a depression on the ground when I first saw it, so I eased the car alongside, at a distance of about fifteen metres, and stayed there, unobtrusive, and becoming part of the scenery I hoped.
     



     After it dried off and preened its feathers extensively, it flew up into a nearby tree.




     At the Laurel Creek Reservoir, the ducks were all quite distant, but I managed to spot this female Wood Duck Aix Sponsa resting and preening 
with a group of Mallards Anas platyrynchos. 



     A couple of American Coots Fulica americana were more cooperative and swam a little closer to the culvert on which I was standing.



     The concentrations of waterfowl should build up considerably over the next few weeks and I will be keeping a close eye on the comings and goings. There were several other species on the water today, but way off in the distance and quite out of photographic range.
David M. Gascoigne,
David M. Gascoigne,

I'm a life long birder. My interests are birds, nature, reading, books, outdoors, travel, food and wine.

4 comments:

  1. I think another issue with Corvids is that they are smart birds and therefore more wary probably. I agree that they are a challenge to photograph, as are the Coots with their wet white bills and dark plumage!

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  2. Crows are quite a number of birds in my country:-)
    Greetings

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  3. Hi David,
    We have also crows here, but not as much as chewing.
    Beautiful photos.

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  4. The American coots like the Dutch coots with a difference. The American side are high on the beak a red piece and the Dutch coots not:-)

    ReplyDelete

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