Crow Cleaning Up

February 11, 2017

Turkey vultures don’t show up at Cesar Chavez Park much, so the important job of cleaning up carrion falls to other birds. Here’s a crow at work beginning to dispose of a ground squirrel that met its end on the big kite lawn near the parking circle at the end of Spinnaker Way. I read somewhere that without the sanitary service that carrion eaters provide, we would have dead animals up to our knees. Crows even look the part of the stereotype undertaker, dressed all in black. But they’re omnivorous. They’re not specialized for this work the way vultures are, with their featherless red heads and their nostrils that go clear through their beaks, for better penetration of cavities. OK, enough said.