bird watching

**G*@aol.com**

We've always been bird watchers, and since we traveled a lot in our RV we  
saw many western birds. here in Riverside CA we see a good mixture, but as the  
city had brown and expanded we find some are missing. We used to see lots of  
California jays, but don't now. But we do see sparrows, juncos, thrashers, red 
 tailed hawks, house finches, goldfinches, doves, and pigeons, a few Western  
Bluebirds in the winter.

But an interesting sight now is the crow. Yes, the common crow. We used to  
have many of them, but then West Nile Virus depleted their numbers  
drastically.  Before West Nile, we would see them in the morning and the  evening, flying 
to and from in their search for food. They roosted in the tall  trees along 
the Santa Ana River (a typical desert river here, half a mile wide,  sometimes 
a trickle of water, most of it running under ground) and they'd leave  there 
in the morning in huge flights, sometimes more than a hundred, often many  
groups of 25 and more. Then they disappeared. We saw none for a couple of years.  
Many homeowners found dead birds in their gardens, they scooped up hundreds 
out  in the roosting area near the river, I found a couple in my garden, and 
they  were no more, and we missed them.

Today their numbers are increasing again, and today, when we see a flock of  
them heading out in the morning or coming back in the evening, we remark on 
it.  We're glad to see the common crow return.

Jerry

Gerald Burke
Garden Writer

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