How Does the Northern Mocking Bird and American Crow Fit Into the Organic Garden?
Early in the spring a mocking bird decided to take the swing set’s top bar in the back yard as it’s territory. Other birds were free to come and go to feeders and water below but were not allowed to sit on the top bar. It was amazing to watch as one mocking bird was always on that bar. When did he eat, build nests, raise it’s young? While watching this unusual behavior, the mystery was solved – the birds were taking sentinel turns. As spring passes and summer arrives the mocking birds have a new adversary, the American Crow. The swing set bar territory has been expanded to the whole yard, from their roof top look out point, they attack crows that come to eat corn we throw out on the grass and discarded seeds from the feeders. Mounting an attack begins with two mocking birds usually (but when a hawk caught one, the other carried on the vigil) they swoop down and almost brush the crow with their wings, tiring of this, the crow will finally fly and the chase begins, up into trees, across
