22 Oct 2013
Orem, Utah

(E-mail from Wayne Whaley --  22 Oct 2013) :

Hi all,

I post a photo of a Crows that I have known since late July/early August here in north Orem. I call her “knob nose” for obvious reasons. She is quite tame towards me and will fly to me when I go outside if she’s in my neighborhood. She is the friendliest of Utah County’s 35 or so resident Crows. I have been studying (photographing and taking videos) of our resident Utah County Crows for four years in order to capture the unusual behaviors and vocalizations of this very interesting species and had yet to see a Crow quite like this one in appearance and behavior. The unusual knob first appeared as a whitish-pinkish growth and has now turned dark gray or black. Has it how hardened or is it fleshy to the touch. I would love to know. This year we had 4 active nests in the county unless someone knows of another one other than the following ones: one was on BYU campus, one at Orem City public library, and 2 near my home by Timpanogas Memorial Gardens. If anyone knows of an active 2013 Utah County nest other than the 4 mentioned will you please let me know. In closing, I have good information that someone is harming our resident Crows (our Utah County nesters) and I suspect that this person does not know that they are a federally protected species and would be subject to fine if caught harming them. More on this in a forthcoming email. I love our very intelligent Am. Crows and I hope that we will continue to have a small breeding population in our county to enjoy.

Most sincerely,
Wayne

Wayne H. Whaley, Ph.D.
(Professor of Zoology)
College of Science & Health
Department of Biology
Utah Valley University
Orem, UT 84058
USA

Office: (801) 863-8607
Dept.: (801) 863-8511
Prof. page: http://www.uvu.edu/profpages/profiles/show/user_id/4782
Research web: http://research.uvu.edu/whaley/

Photo by Wayne Whaley