Crime's in the air, too, this spring

At the Ballona Freshwater Marsh in Playa Vista last weekend, we saw something interesting but puzzling, a red-winged blackbird attacking a crow in flight.

This morning, a pair of crows came and sat on the tree outside our house, driving the pair of black phoebes guarding their nest berserk. They protested loudly and tried their best to scare them off, but the crows cawed loudly back and refused to budge.

I suddenly remembered a story told to me also earlier this weekend by fellow birders. Some years back they had been delighted to see a pair of nesting White-tailed Kites raising their young. But one day, they said, a pack of crows showed up and raided their nest, picking up and dropping their young to the ground.

Putting two and two together, I realized the first two events were related. The red-winged blackbird was driving the crow away because of its propensity for nest-raiding, and the black phoebe were likewise right to be worried about the crows. Now I confess I'm no objective scientist when it comes to these beautiful birds that have made their home near mine. So I dashed out and flailed my arms and tossed a stick at the crows to drive them away. But they came right back in a bit. After four more attempts by my son and me (in a couple of which he surprised me by delightfully imitating a red-shouldered hawk!)  to drive them away this morning, it seemed finally to get quieter. But now I'm worried...

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Another news I heard over the weekend has shocked me much more. This note was posted to the LA County Birding email list by a birder on Sunday:

Today I decided to celebrate Easter at the Sepulveda Basin and unfortunately, at 9:30 am, as I was entering the tunnel under Burbank Blvd (going south), a man riding on a bicycle paused briefly to wish me a Happy Easter and a few minutes later this same man pulled a knife on a man at the other end of the tunnel, held the knife to his throat, punched him in the face several times, and took his wallet and backpack. Although there were many people at the basin today...birding, walking/jogging and picnicking, this violence still occurred, and the mugger has not been caught. We all know that the area is not the best, so I am taking this opportunity to again state to be please be careful when in the basin and especially if you are birding alone.

The Sepulveda  Basin Wildlife Reserve is one of the best spots for birdwatching in LA (this is where I saw the belted kingfisher, downy woodpecker, cliff swallow,  Bullock's oriole, western kingbird, and Hutton's vireo all for the first time). Just a week before I took my eight year old with me through that very tunnel, and I recall how much we had enjoyed hearing our echoes in it. It's chilling to hear that something like this could happen there in broad daylight.