While I have not directly seen crows preying on nests or boxes like John Newman posted, I have had unusual crow activity in my 2 backyard bird baths.  Both are being fouled by crows that apparently want to soak carcasses in the water.  The carcases seem to all be birds, but are mostly unrecognizable as to species.  Some appear to be blackbirds.  Both bird baths are being fouled at least twice per day, with at least 2 individual crows involved.  When I was away for 3 days, the baths became so foul that they were drawing large numbers of flies.  Needless to say, this discourages other birds from using the water to drink or bathe.

In 30 previous years at the same location, I have had a crow occassionally soak a piece of scavenged garbage in a bird bath, usually something that appeared to have been stolen from a trash can or a dog's dish.  What is happening this season is unprecedented for my yard.

I'm beginning to think that it is a shame the crows won't be "in season" until the end of August.

Steve Long

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