Gary, much the same as me now. I hear crows calling out when I am still in bed in the morning, and I wonder if they are addressing me. LOL.
Some interesting photos for sure, the Heron bothered by crows. A little troubling, I admit. Having had this crow for a number of weeks now, my own observations and reading, it has been informative. Said to be the most intelligent bird on the planet, still the number of crows that survive past one or two years is very small numbers compared to the ones that hatch. Hank has to my mind, never showed any aggression towards me or anyone else, frequently getting petted by strangers, even when preferred not to be bothered. During moments of frustration, he will tell you, but doesn't snap or anything mean yet. He jabbed a cucumber pretty rad once, is about all i have observed, or takes it out on his water dish. When something bothers him, attempt at avoidance is how he generally proceeds. He's an independent from other birds, though. That being said, crows have a very developed social structure in their rookeries, will remain with parents for up to two years and assist with food gathering, nests, and the raising of young. What goes on in those rooks is very influential to them, they much learn their ways from observation of their mates. They can be territorial, will attack other birds that they think are trying to infringe on their space, one of the concerns with Hank trying to reenter the group that lives around my shop. When we go out on the bike, we get into the territories of other crow rooks, and his presence often causes a bit of a ruckus, loud calling out and nervous behavior, I think a warning to other crows or maybe just the oddity of seeing one of their own species with a human. Whatever it is, they sure do take note of it. Hank stays chilled, but he pays attention. It is a bummer about crows hassling other birds, especially very desirable ones like the Heron, it's life in the wild with this species, unfortunately.
One thing in defense of crows, they have quite amazing appetites, I can't believe how much Hank requires, and he doesn't appear fat or anything unusual in that regard. As I mentioned before, their metabolism rate must be quite high, holding him under his chest and he is literally quite hot all of the time. Even when only slightly warm outside, he will sit with his beak wide open, I assume to expend the heat. They take food in and then poop out, the cycle goes on all day like that. It seems like a conveyor belt of food moving through him almost all of the time. Finding that much food on their own in the trees and on the ground, I don't know how they manage to do it. It must be full time activity. I would say that like three or four times per day, his appetite really peaks, and Hank isn't nearly expending the physical energy of a bird that is frequently flying around. It occurs that crows might see other birds in their area as potentially threatening their food abundance, and ganging up comes rather easy to them, given the group mentality that they have.
