Today is Tuesday, which means I spent a good chunk of the day at home, which means... #CrowUpdate and a very special one, entirely focused on Baby Crow!!!
I saw it not once, not twice, but three times today!
First, while giving peanuts to Mom, I heard him in the tree nearby. It stayed this way for a little while. I'm not sure if it wanted to jump to the branch close by or if it was looking at Mom collecting the peanuts. Maybe both?
A bit later, Dad was walking on the ground, but acting a little weird. I wondered why, so I went and... lo and behold, baby was on the ground too!!! One of its first times.
It was so cute, grabbing a bunch of things with its beak (leaves, rocks, etc.) basically discovering the world.
I find it a bit skinny. (maybe that's why the parents have been coming to see me for peanuts a lot these days?)
(sorry for the picture quality, I didn't want to get too close)
Mr. Crow says "good morning" so mini #CrowUpdate :
Both Mr. and Ms. Crow have been extremely friendly this morning (I'm working from home today) they approached me closer than before (They didn't even fly away when I exited the house and they happened to be near the door.) Maybe the last remnant of fear they had about me vanished when I helped them chase the cat in the park two days ago?
Baby is still hanging out in the nest, I caught a glimpse of it.
One feather from Mr. Crow's wing is ready to fall. Could be bad news (one more damaged feather) or good news (one already damaged feather falling and finally about to be replaced by a new one). It doesn't seem to bother him, though.
Away at the parking lot, the babies can now fly and are hanging out all over the place. They're about to be loud. Maybe it's a good thing "my" crows seem to only have one baby at a time. (2/2)
#CrowUpdate When was the last one? More than a week probably. Here is the thing, the weather being nicer, there are almost always people in the park at the moment, so it's rarely quiet enough for the #crows to come down. The last time I spent some sort of time with Mr. Crow was about a week ago, and he was not too keen on approaching me. And also, it's a very busy and stressful time for the crows too, probably the busiest and most stressful time of the year.
So yeah, nesting. Babies are in the nest. I have no idea how many, they're well hidden from the ground. As I said, it's a busy and stressful time for the #crows. Even more this year, as Mr. Crow can't do much. He spends a lot of his days hiding (maybe foraging too) or on the lookout on top of a utility pole. Ms. Crow has to do most of the rest: feeding the babies, spending time with them, but also fending off threats. She's the one who has to chase the eagles (it used to be Mr. Crow's job) ⤵️ 🧵
Also cats. While they can't climb that high, the babies are going to get out of the nest any day now (last year was the first week of May if I remember well) and crow fledglings leave the nest BEFORE being able to fly. It's a weird thing and probably part of natural selection: they need to count on more than just their wings to survive (this is how Mr. Crow still manages to survive in his condition, I guess) but of course cats represent a grave danger then, (⤵️ 🧵 )
@atomicpoet@CWSmith What Chris said. Journalism is a real job.
It's being disparaged a lot these days because too many imposters (be it penpushers or "pundits") have been calling themselves journalists these days (in a sense they're killing the job as much as AI, but that's another topic, probably)
@rastilin@CWSmith@atomicpoet Yes, fact-checking is the heart and soul of journalism. It what journalism is (or is supposed to be.) And it's what many "journalists" are not doing anymore, they're just repeating what they hear. This has never been part of the job of a journalist.
If A says that the apple is blue and B says that the apple is red. It is not the job of the journalist to repeat both. The journalist should either say "the apple is red" (possibly adding "as B says") or (1/2)
@CWSmith@atomicpoet Verification and fact-checking is needed for every single sort of reporting. This is what journalism is supposed to be. How will your AI journalist go on site? How will it speak to the actors or the witnesses of the news?
An AI journalist can only rephrase what other human journalists wrote (or worse what another AI journalist has written.) This is not journalism. This is paraphrasing. And yes, I know this is what many so-called "news sites" are doing. It's not journalism.
#CrowUpdate I only briefly see the #crows these days but they come daily to get the peanuts on my balcony and my yard. The thing is that the park is often crowded in the late afternoon when I return from work, and with Mr. Crow injured and Ms. Crow spending time in the nest, they don't hang out much in the empty park in the morning. Today was interesting, though (pics are from last week, I didn't have my camera).
When I got home, I saw crows chasing an eagle near my home. (🧵 ⤵️ ) #crow#corvid
I'm not sure who that was, Mr. Crow still can't fly much, so it wasn't him. Anyway, the park was surprisingly empty this evening (right when I was tired and wanted to take a nap after work) so I went for a little bit, but without a camera, which is a shame, because I saw Mr. Crow on a branch, then another one, then another one, then a cable, then a telephone pole (that luckily has "steps" for technicians to climb and birds to perch on) then another cable, then the top of the pole, ⤵️
then another higher cable from which he glided/tried to fly as best as he could to the tree where the nest was located. His wings are scarily short. Every time I see him in the air, they seem shorter than the previous time. Anyways, the poor thing really has mastered the art of climbing to a high position (I wish I had my camera - the pic is from last week). What happened next was interesting. ⤵️
Crow update (no pictures).
So, as you know, Mr. Crow's wings have been repeatedly damaged over the winter and he didn't really have time to heal (i.e. grow new feathers, especially because the old ones didn't fall, they're broken but still in the wing, so I guess new ones can't grow.)
Yesterday evening, shortly before sunset and around the time crows fly away to roost, some very strong winds started.
I remember wondering how he'd be able to fly with the other crows. (1/2)
This morning, Ms Crow was around, ate some peanuts and... Ms Crow was around, begged for more peanuts and... No Mr. Crow anywhere. And as the day went I realized that Ms. Crow was looking for Mr. Crow, and called him many times. Including this evening when it was time to go roosting, she was still here calling him way past sunset.
I think it's the first time that I see her alone all day long.
@elduvelle I'm really afraid that this time, this is it.
The thing that both reassures and concerns me is that she doesn't know where he is.
If she knew he was dead, she'd be taking part in a "crow funeral" not waiting for him here.
I still hope he had to hide somewhere because of the wind yesterday, but why didn't he make it to the neighborhood at all this morning is a mystery. It wasn't windy today, but it was cold. I hope he's just too weak to fly and will get better in a couple of days.