STANLEY PARK NOTEBOOK
/by Jacqui Birchall
(Click images to enlarge. Related links are all at the end of the column)
THE CHANGING SEASONS
The seasonal changes seem to be coming so fast. A ‘crunch, crunch’ now heralds my morning walks as I step through Stanley Park’s many fallen leaves. The 5 a.m. sunrises and 10 p.m. sunsets seem so long ago. Horse chestnuts, hazelnuts and berries abound, and the furry and feathered inhabitants of the park are happily munching away on them in advance of winter.
The looper moth infestation appears to have dwindled this year. It is a cyclical event, so perhaps we are on the way out of the awful effects of the last few years.
Soon we will see all the water fowl from the north that come to winter here, or that stop for a rest on the way to more southern climes. Always a beautiful sight. Do keep your eyes peeled for harlequin ducks, surf scoters, Barrow’s goldeneye and buffleheads. Many of these visitors may be observed in Lost Lagoon and Beaver Lake, but hundreds of diving surf scoters and Barrow’s goldeneyes can be observed in the ocean as you walk from the Lion’s Gate Bridge to Second Beach.
We’ve all seen that look on the faces of neighbourhood crows! (Jacqui Birchall Photos)
SOMETHING TO CROW ABOUT
Their Amazing Intelligence
I recently took a Stanley Park Ecology Society (SPES) workshop on crows. The SPES workshops are always fabulous, and crows have fascinated me for years!
The workshop was presented by the famous photographer June Hunter, who calls herself a ‘crowtographer’. June also photographs bears and whales. Check out her Facebook page and website for more of her beautiful pictures (links below).
Crows are found on every continent except Antarctica. They share a lifestyle with humans. Crows are very intelligent and are reputed to remember human beings on sight. If a human is mean to a crow, the word goes out in the crow community and that human will be remembered and picked on.
Handsome, beady-eyed, and always seem to be striking a pose.
Apparently, dive bombing crows only bomb the backs of our heads. If you turn suddenly the crow will veer away. Put eyeballs on the back of your hat, June said, and they will not dive at you!
Crow watching is easy for city dwellers. They are everywhere. A crow family rules a kingdom of approximately half a block. They protect it persistently, so you can easily spot your local crows.
A Murder of Crows (the impressive CBC-produced documentary, not the 1998 film starring Cuba Gooding Jr.) follows crows and researchers around the world.
Spring brings nesting season. First the twigs, and then one may observe the crows carrying fluff to fill the nest. The nests are built to fit the female. Japanese crows are very inventive, stealing metal coat hangers to help construct their nests. The female can be seen spreading the hanger and checking the fit against her size.
Sounds change too in the spring, when one will hear a solicitous series of caws. This is the female begging with beak open, wings out, as she trains her mate to bring her food while she is incubating the eggs. Only the female can incubate, as the female has a bald patch to keep eggs warm. The male crow brings her food. Once the eggs hatch they will both bring food to the chicks as they grow into fledglings. The chicks stay in the nest for about five weeks.
The crows also have a ‘family chat’ sound. It is quite different — a rattling that is softer and more intimate than their other calls. An out of town visitor staying with me asked what bird was making that particular sound, as it is so different from their usual raucous chatter.
In late spring and early summer the chicks become fledglings. This is a dangerous time for them as they are still very vulnerable for the next two weeks after fledging. They have amazing blue eyes at this point in their development.
Though protective of their young, if they know you and trust you, you won’t get dive-bombed.
At this time of year, dive bombing is a common behaviour for crows as they try to protect their young. Fledglings often end up on the ground in their attempts to fly. If you see your neighbourhood crows surrounding and dive bombing a certain spot, it’s likely there’s a young or injured crow there.
The babies are soon continuously whining for food. We all hear that annoying sound, and I always wonder at the patience of the parents; the fledglings whine nonstop, seemingly. Their blue eyes turn grey and the inside of their beaks becomes red, as if to give the parents a target for the food. The parents stick the food right down their gullets so it doesn’t get lost in the transfer.
As the summer goes on the parents will start to ignore the fledglings. By August, the parents may peck at fledglings that won’t stop begging.
The crows need water in the heat of summer, so please put a bowl out and remember to clean it regularly.
You may have been wondering why your usually sleek crow neighbours look a bit of a mess in late summer and early fall. Well that’s because it’s the moulting season. It is an itchy time, so the crows look a bit scruffy and are easily annoyed by their solicitous offspring. But, much like pleased parents upon their children’s return to school, most fledglings are independent by this time of year, and the happy crows — satiated on the season’s bounty of berries and nuts — begin to fly back to their roosts in Burnaby and the Tri-Cities.
However, the newly fledged and freshly independent crows are unschooled in the protocols of territory claims and their naïveté frequently cause uproars.
During the summer, the mated-for-life adult crows stay in town with their nests and chicks, while in the winter they spend a lot of time together.
If you see a crow that seems to have been pooped on, this means that crow has low status and sleeps on the lower rungs of the roost.
Another take on the world of crows by Dan Piraro of Bizarro fame. (Bizarro © 2021 Bizarro Studios, Distributed by King Features Syndicate, Inc. )
Crows are among the smartest wildlife: they hold funerals and wakes, they make tools, they hide food (in my planter boxes for instance!), and they are very social. They make hooks and barbed spears from leaves and twigs. Klaudia Krystyna has a very interesting article on crow funerals (link below).
If you hear a huge crow ruckus, check it out. They band together to chase hunting birds like eagles and they really kick off when a coyote appears. Crows also have regional accents.
Occasionally you may see a crow “anting.” Crows will role in the dust with the ants rubbing the ants into their feathers and skin. These unhappy ants secrete formic acid which acts as a repellent against parasites and harmful microorganisms.
The lifespan of a crow is about twenty years.
Try watching your neighbourhood crows carefully. It will become possible to tell one from another. A pair used to greet me every morning in Stanley Park. The smaller, whom I assumed to be the female, had one white feather in her tail so she was easy to identify. They would follow me for the length of their territory.
THE GREAT OUTDOOR COMEDY FESTIVAL
A Fundraiser and a Scary Incident
The Great Outdoor Comedy Festival, held in the Brockton Playing Fields in Stanley Park in mid-September, featured performances from well-known comedians Russell Peters and Kevin Hart.
These evenings benefited the Stanley Park Ecology Society, which held a 50/50 raffle online and on site. Talaysay Tours, an Indigenous organization that leads tours of various aspects of Stanley Park, benefited from a portion of the shows’ ticket sales.
A less-than-uplifting incident took place on the first night of the show, when a 31-year-old man named Jacques Louis-Martin Letendre allegedly breached a fence at the venue and attempted to approach the stage while armed with two edged weapons, according to police. Letendre was arrested and charged with uttering threats, assault, and possessing weapons for a dangerous purpose.
SPEAKERS WANTED
Indigenous Voice Sought for Series
The Stanley Park Ecology Society is seeking speakers for a series of free online webinars and in-person programs called Indigenous Voices. The series aims to use their platform to highlight Indigenous knowledge and perspectives on land, water, plants, stewardship, local history, and current First Nations projects in the park.
The programs will take place over the next year, with hosts presenting on a topic of their choice. Their priority is to secure several speakers before the end of November. They are offering a $400 honorarium to each speaker/host as part of this series. Each session will be approximately 1.5 hours long.
Please reach out to stewardship@stanleyparkecology.ca for more details.
