Here's their report and a question:
I could be totally overthinking this. I have a small balcony facing a small wood. I have a few birdefeeders and I get all kinds of birds everyday. Basically, is it possible one of them pecked this perfect circle into my nickel?I left it out there one day after seeing my first crow. That was a couple weeks ago and it didn't move at all til just a few days ago. I thought it may have been frozen to the deck. Eventually it had been moved and I noticed this hole! The back side seems to have the metal still present and folded over, I thought that might help confirm what had happened here. Anyone know how easily a bird could do this? Thanks!
The explanation was one that most readers of TYWKIWDBI could have predicted:
"A bird would not do that but it’s possible it took your nickel away and brought back another that it found. I would continue to experiment."
Other replies:
"My crows brought me a bullet casing and a child’s Jack among other things they love shiny!""I had a murder of crows I left roasted peanuts (unsalted) and nickels out for. The nickels disappeared and one time, there was a very shiny dime and a silver gum wrapper in the spot where I fed them! Prized possessions.""The Xmas tree fell a few years ago, and the string of beads broke. Wife had the brilliant idea to put them and peanuts in a flower pot hung from a tree limb. The crows rolled in. I get gifts almost daily. Glasses, coins, beads, metal shot glasses, a car key to a jeep wrangler, dog tags, a medical alert bracelet, silver crosses, necklaces. They hang out to see my reaction. They harass the crap out of the local hawks, who think they want one of our chickens. And, I might give them leftover hotdogs when I'm grilling."
I have heard of this, but never experienced it. Our crows are gone for the winter, but I think this summer I'll leave out some shiny new nickels and see if they will exchange it for an old buffalo nickel or shield nickel. Any reader experiences in this regard?
I am so jealous!!! That is my life's goal to get a gift from a raven or crow
ReplyDeleteis it possible one of them pecked this perfect circle into my nickel?
ReplyDeleteSidestepping the issues referenced in the post, the focus in this question is wrong. A better question is:
Is it possible that one of them made a hole in the nickel, that *happens* to be a (perfect) circle?
And the answer is: yes.
Why change the focus? Because it is highly improbable that any bird pecking at a coin would care about the esthetics of the hole it pokes. It might not even care about making a hole. But we do know that crows and ravens are quite smart and like to play with and throw things. Seagulls throw shellfish on hard surfaces to open them and eat the content. So, it's very possible that some bird played with the coin and happened to make a round hole in it.
My parents' ceramic garden table has been destroyed twice by jackdaws (basically small crows) throwing rocks from the gutter into the garden.
It remains surprising that a lot of people, including animal scientists, do not know that many animals play for entertainment, and have all kinds of crafty ways to get to food. Anybody with a pet knows this. But somehow, 60 years after Jane Goodall started looking at chimps, there are still surprised animal scientists reporting that horses recognize people, even from pictures! [ref NatGeo last year] ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Minutes after I submitted the previous comment, I came across this link:
Deletehttps://apnews.com/article/japan-ailing-sunfish-aquarium-e7a445c162bfe3ce0d95685d277ff812
about an aquarium fish that missed the interaction with visitors after the aquarium closed.
What I wonder is why is it surprising to the caretakers in an aquarium that a fish can be lonely. They interact with these fish every day!
And again, everybody that has had a gold fish or small aquarium is aware that fish need a little stimulation of some sort to be happy. So how to professional caretakers miss that notion?
From the article is seems, by the way, that the caretakers still didn't get it. They thought that just putting fake people there helped, instead of just giving the fish some attention....
This complete lack of animal understanding is baffling.
Watching crows playing by sliding down a snowy slope on their backs is a sheer delight; I've send videos of them doing it on roofs and car windshields. If that isn't play, I don't know what is.
DeleteAnon, this old post is for you -
Deletehttps://tywkiwdbi.blogspot.com/2010/03/all-animals-except-man-know-that.html
Enjoy.
the nickel- 1941- date! that in itself is unusual and highly unlikely to have been swapped out for another nickel with the same date in this 21st century. too bad the OP did not take note of the production date on the coin when first set out.
ReplyDeleteI occasionally feed 'my' crows (the crows in the neighborhood) with stale bread, etc. at the end of my driveway. I sit in a 'blind' (my car) to watch. After a while, I do recognized some of them. Fun to watch them sidle up to a treat and how cautious they are before grabbing some (as many pieces as they can fit in their beak) and fly off to hide the food in the neighbors lawn.
ReplyDeleteMy mother's neighbor has a group of crows that come by regularly to be fed. She typically puts the food out at about 4pm. Somehow the crows keep track of the time and show up just about that time. (and yes, she feeds them at that time by her choice, not because they are showing up then.) She has discovered that they prefer Cheetos to pecans or most anything else. If the food is too hard for them, they will bring it to my mother's birdbath and dunk the food to soften it a bit. When she throws out the food she greets them by saying "Hey guys."
ReplyDeleteOne day she was driving home and saw the crows in a yard a couple of blocks away, doing whatever crows do. She rolled down her window and called out "Hey guys." They all stopped what they were doing, took off, and followed her home.