A Crow Post

Dan did a cat post a while back. That didn’t catch on, so here are some crows.

I noticed that the suet block was disappearing from one of the suet cages on my birdfeeding station. Not being eaten down, but there at one point in the day and then not. Mammals were unlikely to be the culprits – it’s pretty well protected, and when bears, which are sleeping now, decide they want the suet, they do a lot more damage.

So crows were the likely suspects. Here are a couple arriving at the feeding station at 9:37 am yesterday.

One of them is already perched near the suet block. They reach down to open the cage. The following photos are blurry because they are cropped out of larger photos by the naturecam.

A twist of the cage while holding it open,

and the block drops to the ground.

Now the crows can fly to the ground and pick up pieces of the suet cake.

They kept this up until almost 3 pm, when the suet presumably was gone. I have bought a suet cage with a more positive closure. This one has a chain that is also a hanger for the cage, and the tension keeps the door closed. Until a crow figures that out.