tied] Re: Crows and Garlands (OT)

> They are certainly rooks. Rooks are colonial and like to claim city
> parks as their rookeries. Ravens, which are much bigger and to a
> lesser extent synanthropic, live in small groups and prefer the
> country. To be sure, most corvids are highly intelligent and
> adaptable; I've seen ravens lunching on discarded sandwiches on the
> Santa Monica beach, in perfect harmony with crowds of people. They
> used to be rare or at least seclusive in Poland a few decades ago, but
> are now expanding into suburban areas; I see them regularly on the
> outskirts of Poznan. Not thousands of them, however, but from one to
> half a dozen at a time. Sparrows are becoming rare in many European
> cities for reasons that are not entirely clear. Corvids (especially
> magpies) and cats have been blamed for the decline of the sparrow, but
> it seems other factors are far more important:
>
> Piotr

Ravens used to be rare in the eastern U.S. outside of wilderness areas
of the north (Maine, New Hampshire, the Adirondack mountains of
upstate New York--the only place I've seen them) and some parts of
the Appalachian Mountains. But they've expanded their range over the
last 30 years. They first bred in Massachusetts in 1981 and now
they're quite findable if you know where to look. There are about 15
breeding pairs in Connecticut, where they were unknown not long ago.
But aside from diligent birdwatchers, I doubt that many Americans in
the East have ever seen one.

Curiously, there are no crows or similar large corvids in the Americas
south of Nicaragua, though South America should provide excellent
habitat for scavengers.

Jim Rader