Two for joy,
Three for a girl,
Four for a boy,
Five for silver,
Six for gold,
Seven for a secret never to be told.
You go check it out!
"One for Sorrow" is a traditional children's nursery rhyme about magpies. I've used it here! According to an old superstition, the number of magpies one sees determines whether one will have bad luck or not. We often have a trio in our backyard. Being fixed, I don't think we anticipate a girl!
Always me? Whatever.
These are American Crows. We don't have magpies in southeastern Ontario. All are part of the corvid family.
The genus includes jackdaws, crows and ravens, and magpies (the latter of which: are absent in Ontario!).
American Crow
Northern Raven
43-53 cm (17-21”)
Completely black, purplish in sunlight, with large, chunky, strong black bill and feet.
Woodland, farmland, grove, shore
As far north as mid/central Ontario (summer) and northern Ontario.
A loud caw, cah or kahr
55-68 cm (22 – 27”)
Wedge-shaped tail
Hawk-like in its flight (gliding/circling)
Roman nosed bill, goiter-like neckfeathers.
Boreal and Mt. forests, coastal cliffs, tundra. Does not venture much to southern Ontario.
I was listening to a fascinating story on CBCs IDEAS program.They were speaking with a researcher who found that the ravens passed on learned behaviour: harassing the researchers who had previously banded generations of birds years ago.
Hacker and writer Joshua Klein talks about the intelligence of crows and his invention of the crow vending machine. A bit bizarre, one wonders....
whether he is a white-hat or black-hat hacker...I reserve the right to doubt!
Books
In The Company of Crows and Ravens.John M. Marzluff and Tony Angell. Yale University Press, 2005.
Crow Planet: Essential Wisdom from The Urban Wilderness. Lyanda Lynn Haupt. Little, Brown and Company, 2009. Crow. Boria Sax. Reaktion Books, 2003.
Crow: Encounters With The Wise Guys of the Avian World. Candace Savage. Greystone Books, 2005.
Bird Brains: The Intelligence of Crows, Ravens Magpies and Jays. Candace
Savage. Greystone Books, 1995.
Ravens, Crows, Magpies, and Jays. Tony Angell. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1978.
Mind of the Raven: Investigatoins and Adventures with the Wolf-Bird. Bernd Heinrich. Cliff Street Books, 1999.
Ravenson: A Naturral and Fabulous History of Ravens and Crows. Catherine Feher-Elston. Northland Publishing, 1991
Other...
Kevin McGowan is a behavioral ecologist who studies birds, especially the social behavior of crows in Ithaca, New York.
I have found it fascinating, skywatching nearby crows and ravens. The genus Corvus, includes the most intelligent of the birds, including the use of tools, and demonstrating above average intelligence.
The genus includes jackdaws, crows and ravens, and magpies (the latter of which: are absent in Muskoka!).
I wanted to understand the difference between the American Crow (Corvus brachyrhynchos) and the Northern Raven (Corvus corax) , both of which share Muskoka's ecosystem, according to Peterson's Field Guide.
On a cloudy day, they are a stark reminder of the beauty of light and shadows, as their image is reproduced in open water between ice floes.
American Crow
Northern Raven
43-53 cm (17-21”)
Completely black, purplish in sunlight, with large, chunky, strong black bill and feet.
Woodland, farmland, grove, shore
As far north as mid/central Ontario (summer) and northern Ontario.
A loud caw, cah or kahr
55-68 cm (22 – 27”)
Wedge-shaped tail
Hawk-like in its flight (gliding/circling)
Roman nosed bill, goiter-like neckfeathers.
Boreal and Mt. forests, coastal cliffs, tundra. Does not venture much to southern Ontario.
Croaking cr-r-ruck or prruk, metallic tok
Why, you might wonder, does it matter? Crow, raven...well having been corrected a couple of times, I really began to wonder. I still wonder, BTW! This video show the difference in size.
I was listening to a fascinating story on CBCs IDEAS program.They were speaking with a researcher who found that the ravens passed on learned behaviour: harrassing the researchers who had previously banded generations of birds years ago.
They are considered the most intelligent of the birds[3][4] having demonstrated self-awareness in mirror tests (European Magpies) and tool making ability (Crows, Rooks[5])—skills until recently regarded as solely the province of humans and a few other higher mammals.
Corvids are found worldwide except for the tip of South America and the polar ice caps. The majority of the species are found in tropical South and Central America.
They are all over the streets in town. And have been a problem in cities, too.
Talk to the animals...this is what they/we sound like!
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