Even when his face is encrusted with baby poop, he still looks good.
It was a fun week, albeit a little slow. Crows everywhere are busy with babies. I think Bo has been a little bored, in spite of all the hard work. But he knows how to look for fun...
Bo knows he can get whatever snack he wants from me. Half the time he isn’t interested in the food I have to offer. He just takes what he needs. But on Monday he was eyeballing my ziplock baggy full of peanuts. He walked right up to me and made a gesture that very plainly asked for the entire bag.
So I gave it to him.
While I was trying to capture pictures of the chickadees in their nest, Bo showed up on his parents’ turf and demanded that I pay my taxes.
Which I did.
Crow tax just keeps getting higher and higher…
I got a shot of Bo spider hunting up in the eaves of a house in his parents' territory. I'm not sure why his dad isn't chasing him off, but I suspect that it's because Bo helps defend the territory while he is on it…
Here he is taking off to go home and feed the babies.
Bo and I did a photo shoot with roses. If you look at his eyes, you can see how soft they are in this shot. I think he is smiling.
I thought it might be nice to have him right in front of the roses, so I pointed to a better spot along the fence and asked if he could move there so I could take his picture.
And he did.
I think he understands me much better than I understand him. I am learning, though.
I also paid Lorena to do a rosy photo shoot. She begrudgingly obliged.
Here’s a really cute shot of the couple soaking their kibble snacks in the rain gutter side by side. Lorena on the left, Bo in the right.
Lorena has been coming much closer lately, even when Bo isn’t nearby. While I’m sure she’s exhausted and eager to get an easy meal for herself and the kids, I can also tell that she has learned to trust us. It’s quite the honor.
I caught a picture of her yawning in a branch right above my head, which indicates that she feels relaxed around me and Pilot.
And early in the week she even followed us home. She didn’t want more food, she was just curious. This is a shot of her on the roof of my apartment building, looking down at us.
I thanked her for her trust with a nice fatty snack of pork belly I had left over from a soup I made. Ok, I mean pork belly that I had set aside for her.
I’ve started to notice a pattern with Bo. When I am talking to another person or another crow (including his wife), he jumps on my head. With the weather all summery, lots of people are out. When people see me hanging out so close to a crow, many of them want to share their own crow stories. And then suddenly I have a crow on my head. Is he jealous?
My friend took this picture.
I have some exciting news! I saw some activity in the nest this week. Both Lorena and Bo were close by and I was using my zoom lens as a telescope to spy on the nest. Bo, like always, got super jealous that I wasn’t paying attention to him and at one point flew over and catapulted himself off of my camera.
It was great.
In spite of the Bo distractions, though, I did get a glimpse of some movement up there in the nest, so I snapped some shots. I present to you a super grainy, super cropped zoom shot of one or more (?) of Bo and Lorena’s babies in the nest. This could be little heads peeking over the side. Or little butts.
Or it could be Sasquatch.
Anyhow, I’m excited to know that they are big enough to almost get pictures of. I asked around if anyone had a van or motorhome I could stand on top of for a photoshoot of baby crows, but nobody got back to me. Huh.
I hope you’ve enjoyed this post! If you’d like to learn more about my friendship with Bo, check out my blog An Unexpected Friendship.
I enjoy learning and blogging about crows and birds in general, so if you are interested in learning along with me, please do follow me!
Thanks for reading!
