American Crows On Ice And Snow

American Crow walking on ice – Nikon D500, f7.1, 1/800, ISO 500, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light

Utah does have some resident breeding American Crows but the large number of crows we see here in the winter have migrated here from other more northern locations. I’m always happy to see them even though I haven’t photographed them as often as I would like too and I should make an effort to change that because I love these birds. Around this time of the year American Crows can be found in large numbers at the dump in Bountiful, in the towns of Syracuse and Layton and the marshes at Farmington Bay along with other areas. Even though I am not adverse to photographing American Crows (or other birds) at the dump I must admit I prefer more natural locations.

At the end of January I had a few opportunities to photograph some American Crows in nice light on snow and ice at Farmington Bay WMA. I jumped at the opportunity of course. Why wouldn’t I? As a bird photographer all species excite me and it seems almost silly to pass them by.

I noticed that the crows avoided landing directly on the ice on the west side of the road and seemed to prefer landing on the snow or vegetation near the ice before they walked out onto it. That makes sense to me because they appeared to have trouble walking on the slippery ice there and landing on it would have been far more difficult. On the east side of the road the ice has had more snow on it and is somewhat broken up so landing there doesn’t appear to be as slippery as the west side of the road in the marsh.

Calling American Crow on snow – Nikon D500, f7.1, 1/1000, ISO 500, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light

There were hundreds of crows that sunny morning and it was a challenge to be able to isolate just one of them but it was doable from a distance. The American Crows were flying in from the north, south, east and west but my flight shots were not appealing to me because the sky was discolored by our nasty inversions so I focused primarily on the crows on the ice and snow. I love how the shiny, black plumage of the crows contrasts so well from the pure, white snow and the blue of the ice in the background. This crow was calling as it walked on the snow foraging for food.

Winter American Crow at Farmington Bay WMA – Nikon D500, f7.1, 1/1250, ISO 500, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light

This crow repeatedly snapped of bits and pieces of the vegetation it was walking amongst, it may have been searching for insects or insect larvae in the stems. I wish I knew for sure but it was very interesting to observe and photograph it as it moved from stem to stem.

• In the interest of full disclosure I did remove a small stem from the ice at the top center of this frame during post processing because I found it distracting.

I hope to have more opportunities with the large flocks of American Crows overwintering here in northern Utah before they take wing and head back to their breeding grounds.

Life is good.

Mia

Several years ago Utah instituted a crow hunting season here which occurs when the migratory crows are within our state’s borders. I find the hunt disturbing because the hunts are just for the “thrill of the kill”, no one eats the crows they shoot. This is a smear on the state of Utah because more people, including hunters,  spoke against the crow hunt than those who spoke for it. Once again, some pathetically blood-thirsty, narrow-minded government officials didn’t listen to the citizens of the state. They belong to the SSS, shoot, shovel and shut up gang.

My posts about the crow hunt:

Help Stop the Utah Crow Hunt

Help Stop the Utah Crow Hunt – Part II

Click here to see more of my American Crow photos plus facts and information about this species.