This weekend was a minus tide here in the Puget Sound. When I went to my local West Seattle beach I found that it had been turned into a Crow family day. Crow parents had brought their youngsters to the tidal area to learn how to forage for themselves. Ask them how well that was going? Baby crows are begging machines. At this stage they can find a few things but any time a parent gets food they are right there in their face crying for a snack.
More exciting was I spotted one of my gimpy crows with a baby. Nothing has stopped this crow, not even a damaged foot. This particular crow lives up off Marine View Drive and I have seen her there more often than at the beach. When she does show up on the beach and I am feeding the masses she usually gets a bite but is very careful. She is a ballerina on her one leg and lets everyone know around her what she wants. Here is a link to a prior post highlighting her. http://wp.me/p1d1cX-4V
Now the big proof that she can survive with one leg is her little one trailing along at the Beach Family Day. This video not only shows you how she gets around on one leg but just how impish Baby Crows are at this stage in their development.
Crows of Arroyos 
that’s so cool how she’s been living along on her one leg so well foraging, raising a family, and who knows what other challenges she has overcome – i took a look the link above of your previous post of her (Ellie, the one-leg ballerina) and was surprised it was from back in 2011, so she’s been alive and well with only one leg for years – in the “wild”. And cool that you’ve had the chance to see her again once in a while all this time. Also, the “blanket” setting on which she and her child are foraging is very aesthetic.
and this whole Crows of Arroyos (etc) blog is very beautiful and interesting!
p.s. also esp. beautiful is your below july 6th post “Tree Love” of a Fir and Maple entwined in Schmitz Preserve Park. And speaking of trees and crows, i thought you and some of your visitors might like this video-“movie” (at either of the below links) of a few “acrowbatic” city crows having fun playing a sort of musical chairs -like game on a treetop (apologies for the not-so-clear quality photography, i took it from a distance with my unsophisticated camera):
ACROWBATICS – On a Treetop
Your video is fabulous. Loved the effects you used. I need to experiment with that stuff. Practice and take tons of photos and you can’t miss with digital photos. Always take more shots than you think you should. Later it isn’t enough. Thanx for visiting my crow world. They are wonderful beings. R
yes, they are amazing beings and your site was such a special find. Thanks so much for the great suggestions and the very/too kind compliment about the video, very glad you liked it.
p.s. i’ve found that by far most people (including me) looking for nature videos to watch usually much prefer to see clips just showing the nature part, with at most some music added, without adding extra watching time via all the “movie” extras before and after. I enjoyed making it, once, but wouldn’t recommend experimenting with such too much, at least not for most nature clips.
I think you inspired me to play with the U-Tube editing tools some more. I just posted a video of a baby crow bugging his mom. I added a few little word bubbles. Hoping that gets folks to understand how similar crows and human babies are. R
i checked out the video (at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p5LdvMdGgvI posted july 20) but didn’t see the word-bubbles, maybe you removed them. Anyway i enjoyed it, and wondered how long it took before the baby got the hint maybe that it’s time to start trying to feed itself. I suppose like most moms she felt a bit sorry for him but knew he had to start.
hmmm.. let me check out the video. They were there when I posted but technology can have a mind of it’s own.