Is House Crow something we should be concerned about as an invasive species in
the US? I know the Australians have an active reporting and eradication
program based on impacts on agriculture and native wildlife.
See http://www.agric.wa.gov.au/content/pw/vp/bird/housecrow_nht.pdf and ;
http://10000birds.com/the-house-crow-coming-to-a-port-near-you.htm
Wendy Ealding
In a message dated 08/18/08 06:56:39 Eastern Daylight Time, Phoebetria writes:
Ben Copeland was kind enough to send photographs of the Terek Sandpiper taken 9
August at Craney; these images were taken by Michael Lowry, indeed from out of
state, but Ben was taking the Mike and the rest of his group around the
facility that day (they were birding together, rather than separately, as I had
suggested earlier). I believe David and Linda Hughes looked for the bird later
that day, but it was not in the same location if still present. The
Williamsburg group that birded Craney yesterday noted that there were thousands
of distant shorebirds present at Craney and that a scope would be necessary to
study them carefully. (Tereks often race around and lean forward when feeding,
recalling a Wilson's Phalarope, so the behavior may be helpful in finding the
bird if it is still there.) Early morning is best at Craney, before the heat
waves off the mudflats make scope-birding very difficult.
I neglected to post an odd bird I saw on 13 August, about 7:10 p.m., a House
Crow (Corvus splendens) being mobbed by American Crows on Terminal Boulevard,
about 2 miles east of Hampton Boulevard. This species frequently hitches rides
on large ships (and has colonized many port cities well outside its range in
that way), and this bird's location is within just a few miles of one of the
world's largest naval bases and largest commercial shipping ports. In the
event there are more than one of these crows involved, Norfolk could get a new
breeding species, but I saw just the one. I think this species has been
recorded in or near Charleston, SC as well (and probably in Florida, which has
records of hundreds of exotic species).
Ned Brinkley
Cape Charles, VA
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