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June 25, 2007
Carnivorous Corvids
I posted last week about all the babies that we have running around. Soon after hatch, I realized that one by one, duck babies were disappearing. First we thought Hank. Like giant Lennie (Of Mice and Men) he just means to pet the critters he finds but sometimes goes too far. But Hank has been in his house every time a baby came up missing. Then we found two ducklings up my my herb bed. One was just dead but the other disemboweled. Gary suspected the geese who are always hovering over the ducklings. The geese, however territorial, are more protective of the little fluffs than aggressive, so I ruled that one out too.
I have been noticing a number of crows hanging around, close. Visiting the garden and the growing corn is one thing, but these guys were landing in front of the barn, eating food and drinking water. I also noticed that every time crows would fly over, a warning growl would erupt from all the chickens. Last week I saw a crow fly out of the barn with an egg in its mouth. I felt I had caught our culprits but couldn't prove it.
Meanwhile we were losing more ducks. Finally we gathered them all up, chose one lucky mother, and enclosed them all in a coop. The crows cry and call, and I can hear their young beg for food, but hopefully I had it all removed from their grasp.
Until another hatch came. Mama duck took her new brood down to the pond. I watched from the deck, suspicious of the crows who lighted in the trees overhead. Sure enough, one dove and grabbed a duckling right from the water of the pond. I watched the yellow fluff fly away into the trees and heard the young crow beg for its lunch.
I ran, too late, to the mama duck and scooped up the remaining babies. She hissed and jumped at me. "Where were you a minute ago when the crows came?" I yelled at her. I placed the babies in the coop with the one mama. Ducks are not too communal about sharing maternal duties so it's one or none in the coop.
When I am home and I hear the crows descend I run outside clapping. It scares them at least for that minute. With the removal of the constant source of live food, I am hoping they will move on to new territory and not move on to new prey (like my tiny English bantams!)
Posted by roosterh at June 25, 2007 8:17 AM
