Meet Salmon, the fish crow

Diva Crows has a new member: a fish crow who appeared out of nowhere. He is oddly calm around people and very interested in what we are up to, especially as it pertains to food. He will perch on the Diva Crows airlock door and wait for something interesting to happen. And by something interesting, he means food preparation. He monitors our activities closely, even peeking into the window to see what’s for dinner.

Somewhere along the line, he acquired the name Salmon because he’s a fish crow — funny, right? Occasionally he is escorted by another crow, who we assume is his mate Flo (aka Flounder). Given Salmon’s interest in food, we assume the two have a nest with little ones to feed. This means that most of the time, Salmon is all business. If there is no food left out for him, or what is there is not to his liking, he makes his displeasure known by dumping the clean dishes on our camp sink onto the ground. He once stole the top to a container and deposited it in the Diva Crows roof gutter.

He also does not approve of seeing a fellow crow in captivity. Once when we took Apollo out to sunbathe, Salmon showed up and tried to help Apollo make a break for it. When the jailbreak proved unsuccessful, he took his revenge by dumping water on the captors’ deck chair.

We are mystified as to where Salmon and Flo came from. The neighborhood has an established family of American Crows but for some reason, they allowed these fish crows to take up residence in their territory. Although American and Fish Crows have the same diet, they apparently don’t see each other as rivals and often flock together. He must have barged in on the local American Crows the way he took over Diva Crows: with so much charm and chutzpah that no one could deny him anything.