Phenology for 11/17/12: Chilly, with Crows

Sometimes I find myself not bothering to post any phenology reports because time is limited and I've not seen anything unusual. Then I remember...the Internet is global. How else do readers in France, Russia, or Indonesia know what our "normal" is?

Weather: chilly nights, dipping down below freezing but not yet staying there long enough for the ground to freeze; mild days, afternoon highs in the fifties and sixties Fahrenheit.

Flowers: mostly dormant, but a few dandelions still pop up.

Insects: mostly dormant, but yesterday the computer center was pestered by a housefly.

Birds: During the past week I've seen a nuthatch and heard a flock of chickadees, "singing" competitively. (To humans they all sound pretty much alike, but female chickadees hear sounds outside the human range and recognize different males by their songs...and may dump their mates in favor of males with a more appealing song.)

Most noticeable, however, have been lots of blue jays and American Crows. Americans don't always realize that in the Eastern States we have two distinct species of crows. American Crows are bigger than Fish Crows. Both species are solid black all over (except for rare albino individuals, of which I've never seen one). Both are great mimics and, although they don't interbreed and usually travel in single-species flocks that use different sets of calls, in places where flocks mingle (like parks where visitors leave lots of crumbs) the birds will learn to imitate each other's calls to expand their repertoire of "words."

In Scott County, Virginia, they all seem to be American Crows. Waterfront parks in Maryland and Florida are where I've met Fish Crows who identified themselves as such. Instead of warning other crows of a human's approach, or warning a human to leave them alone, with the usual loud "Caw! Caw!", Fish Crows actually say "hunh-unh." (Some Native American humans copied this "word" into their languages, and now it's part of American English slang too.)

More about the crows:

http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Fish_Crow/id

http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/birding/fish-crow/

Meet or adopt a Fish Crow in Florida here: http://www.peaceriverwildlifecenter.com/crows.html

Nobody seems to think American Crows need adoption. They are too common. Those who like a cheeky, misbehaving, messy pet who's vulnerable to louse infections and may occasionally bite, however, say that American Crows who've learned to overcome their instinctive distaste for humans can become amusing pets.