This is one of the Playground Pair. However, the Pair are relevant to this Cool Dude drama.
Cool Dude had been eating with her parents (I've decided to go with she... I seem to recall evidence that females can be quicker at social learning... but that may be my bias). But she saw me feeding the Flying Two and the Playground Pair so came to a position in between their two territories and the space usually used by the Brave Three.
She is, as I have said, confident - sometimes placing me between her and the territorial Fluffy Heads or coming closer to me so the Fluffy Heads are too nervous to chase her off. Here she demanded food and unlike the others is not very worried when the nuts fall near her. However, I noticed that she was shelling the nuts then burying them, covering the holes with moss and blades of grass.
Once she had buried a few, she'd call for more.
This is interesting as she was not hungry. She was not motivated by hunger but had a different purpose, possibly demonstrating awareness of the future? To overcome fear of a human and to communicate with a human when not in immediate want seems incredibly smart.
It struck me that maybe when other crows had taken two or three nuts (in their shells) and flown away, perhaps they were storing them in nests... but if she doesn't have a nest of her own, I guess she'd have to bury them.
I have read that crows bury things and cover them with grass. I noticed that she would inspect the hole and the completed site carefully - with her right eye - and keep me in vision with her left.
This makes sense as bird brains are more lateralised than ours and the right eye (connected to the left hemisphere) tends to be focused on things to be manipulated (food), while the left (right hemisphere) deals with more holistic issues (threat, possible advantage, socialising).
At one point, one of the Playground Pair flew over to chase her off - but her parents, who'd been 'spotting' (looking out from the tree tops) flew in to protect her.
The 'spotters' will call to alert others (their partner usually) to my presence. I hear the call and throw nuts. Usually, the one will only fly down if the other is also able to come. I guess that's for security. Sometimes the pair comes together, sometimes one-by-one - with only both in situ when I have moved away.
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