The year 2020 continues to deliver difficult challenges. For those of us on the West Coast, we’re dealing with fires and smoke, either directly or indirectly. I hope the continuation of this story will bring a moment of joy for you during these times.

See Walnut Stories: Part 1 for the first portion of this story.

Day 3: Morning

A single crow was waiting on the gutter, just below my window. They are getting bolder. I told it to retreat to the roof of the nearby building. Interestingly, it obliged and I tossed the walnut piece onto the graveled roof. The crow ate part of the walnut, then flew to a nearby tree to finish it off. It then returned to the roof and sat on a fat pipe for a while before begging again at the gutter below my window. However, I’m limiting the crows to one walnut a day. No need to get spoiled here.

Day 4 and Beyond

I’ve been feeding the crows for several weeks now and have watched with interest their behavior towards each other. The smaller one is the more cunning of the pair. It started to come by on its own in the morning, cawing at my window. After getting a walnut piece, it would either eat it immediately or stash it. Later, it would come by with its friend. I would throw them each a walnut, so now the little guy gets two pieces! This went on a for a few days.

Then the little guy started a new behavior. It would show up with its friend and beg at the gutter. When I opened the window, the larger friend would fly to the roof, but the small one would stay at the window watching me. I would toss out two walnut pieces, one at a time. The little guy would quickly collect the first walnut, watch me intently, and then dart after the second piece. The little crow nabbed both pieces and left its friend with none! That cunning, small crow was figuring out ways to get more goodies. I wised up to this behavior and can now manage to throw both pieces at the same time onto the roof of the nearby building.

It’s been fascinating watching the crows interact and scam each other for food. Their intelligence and strategies around getting a piece of walnut is really fun to observe. Next time you see a crow in the neighborhood, watch it for a while and see if you can find anything unique!