Now that my trials are in full swing, I’m on the lookout for volunteers. Trials generally last 30min, and there’s no minimum commitment to help. Even one time could be of great use to me, especially weekday mornings and weekends. Leave a comment if you’re interested in helping and learning more!
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corvidresearch.blog 
Hey, your old impromptu volunteer and observer here from Seattle Center the other week, Jeremy. Anyways, I finally found your site with some goggle skillz. Not necessarily to volunteer (though I gladly would if you wanted me to — I observe crows already), but one of my fellow employees had a question/observation about some crows up in Canada:
“ive been tracking a phenomenon lately, when we drive back and forth from the montreal area to quebec, which is about every other week. its about a 3 hour stretch of highway.
for whatever reason, red winged blackbirds really like the strips alongside the roadways as habitats – typically full of grass and “phragmites” an invasive introduced plant which has mostly displaced the native cattail.
on a day with good weather, during a three hour trip i’ll typically see the following scenario played out about five times between the red winged blackbirds and the much larger crows who also seem to favor this habitat (along with seemingly all others)…
one or two blackbirds dive bomb and really aggressively chase away the crows. i saw it a couple times in the past, but now that i’ve caught onto this phenomenon its unmistakable in its frequency…
do you know what i’m talking about? pictures below
https://encrypted.google.com/search?tbm=isch&q=red%20wing%20blackbird%20crow&tbs=imgo:1&biw=668&bih=326&sei=-EK-UYzRO9Wo4APihIDgDw#facrc=_&imgrc=9bmNrQafXjohsM%3A%3BKzzA2YDe_oaUvM%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fbp0.blogger.com%252F_DOcHp1uirtM%252FSA-9q4ucD1I%252FAAAAAAAAAJ8%252FEzsNQ2mPGSA%252Fs320%252FBlackbirds%252Bchasing%252BCrow-747662.jpg%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fhansroenau.blogspot.com%252F2008%252F04%252Fblackbirds-chasing-crow.html%3B320%3B221
this video is not bad, but what ive been seeing is usually an aerial ballet
the fact that it happens so frequently along just one stretch of road makes me consider: how many times is this same drama played out between members of these two species groups across the entire continent on any given day – all without any of the actors in one location knowing that its being played out again and again elsewhere at the same moment
im quite certain this applies to us in some way”
And as I said, I would do a write-up of the encounter you and I had. Here that is:
http://www.earlyclues.com/2013/06/12/a-place-where-crows-gather/
And then another, that I didn’t happen to write:
http://www.earlyclues.com/2013/05/06/crow-messenger-carrier-wave-updates/
But if you could perhaps answer that observation/question from Tim, that would be awesome.
Just as crows will chase the Red-tails and Eagles to protect their nests and young, Red-winged blackbirds will do the same. Crows are prevalent nest predators and my guess is the RWBB is on the defense. You can see the exact same scenario playing out between gulls and crows in the city. Gulls will gladly gobble up young, and it’s common to see them perched atop a building, snapping at the crows just as this crow is snapping at the RWBB. Good stuff!
And I wrote “goggle” not google. . .