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Bryan McGrath's avatar

And now, "montane" is added to my vocabulary. And until today, I had not put together any familial link between crows and blue jays, but man does it make sense!

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Sophie A. H. Osborn's avatar

It can definitely be eye opening to know which birds are closely related! Corvids are often brash and loud, but surprisingly secretive at their nests.

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Sherry Ritter's avatar

After the big wildfires in the Bitterroot Valley in 2000, Clark's Nutcrackers were already busy caching (planting) seeds as the ground still smoldered. The same happened in an area of a prescribed burn that I often hike through--dozens of nutcrackers hiding their seeds, planting the next generation of pines. I love to stand under the canopy of a pine forest with nutcrackers and crossbills opening cones above me, the empty wings of the seeds raining softly down on my head.

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Sophie A. H. Osborn's avatar

I just LOVED the image of you standing under a pine-forest canopy with empty seed wings raining softly down on your head!! I've never experienced that. And how cool that you got to see Clark's Nutcrackers replanting our forests while the ground still smoldered. I didn't realize that they were so quick to cache seeds post-burns. 10 minutes with you is an education! : )

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Lisa Koitzsch's avatar

The sound of the Clark’s Nutcracker brings me instantly to the forested mountainsides of the Rocky Mountains! And I am in awe of their ability to find, with great success, their thousands of seed caches! What an amazing bird! With an incredible brain! I loved this piece and laughed out loud at your description of misplacing your wallet, etc over the years. I remember that Guatemala incident well! 💜🐦

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Sophie A. H. Osborn's avatar

I think that Guatemala incident scarred my poor family as much as it did me! Hooray for Clark's! Voice of the Rocky Mountains and a brain that will always make mine look feeble by comparison! : )

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Micki's avatar

I always love your suggestions. Hurray for messy lawns and for the intelligent corvids!

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Sophie A. H. Osborn's avatar

Hurray for messy lawns and brilliant corvids indeed! Both are life enriching. : )

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Dana Osborn's avatar

An appropriate time for nutcrackers and seed hoarders. Ahh.. between them, the jays and the squirrels the nut and seed gatherers are busy this time of the year! Such a in-depth look at the extraordinary memory of them. Thank you for this wonderful sharing of your knowledge.

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Sophie A. H. Osborn's avatar

Thank YOU, for the kind words, Dana. As much as I love summer, I do enjoy witnessing and engaging in these preparations for the long dark days of winter!

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Susie Adams's avatar

Haha! I’ll never call you bird brained again 😉! And that’s a crazy lot of seeds. I would definitely starve to death if I had to hide all of my food and then remember where it was.

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Sophie A. H. Osborn's avatar

Please please call me bird brained! : ) I'd be so flattered! We can all dream ...

Haha! I'd starve to death too if I depended on my memory to find all of my food.

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