August 19th, 2005. Hampshire Mall, Amherst, MA.
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Fish Crow Corvus ossifragus.
| Fish
Crow is probably not the most exciting species to search for in Western
Massachusetts, but they are apparently quite scarce here. I’ve always
liked them and enjoyed their distinctive, almost comical nasal call. In
the summer, the calls of young American Crows can be heard and sound rather similar
to those of Fish Crow. Naturally, I’ve approached this subject with some
caution but I think that I’ve narrowed down a small population of Fish
Crows living on farmland along South Maple Street in Amherst/Hadley.
They appear to regularly forage on scraps in the Hampshire Mall by
Route 9.
Having heard probable Fish Crows for most of July on the Norwottuck
Rail Trail at South Maple Street, I again heard the familiar ‘cah-ah’
call at the Mall on
Route 9. So today I was there with bins and camera and this time I followed
a calling bird all the way from the Norwottuck Rail Trail to
MacDonalds! It was VERY noisy and allowed me to take a number of images
through binoculars. The next day I took a couple of images of an American
Crow, which I’ve thrown in here for comparison.
The Fish Crows don’t seem to be at the mall all the time, but the best
time seems to be between 13:00 and 15:00hrs. American Crows are very
much present in this area as well.
| | Taken using Canon Powershot A-95 though Leica 10x42 binoculars.. |
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