During my first walkabout of Ballard over the noon hour, I noticed a crow pacing up and down the iron railing in front of a green house with a red door. I was taking some pictures when the door opened, and I braced myself for questions such as, “Why are you taking pictures of my house?” Out stepped a woman who explained that the crows were trying to get her attention so she would feed them. And then she placed a row of cheesy crackers along the railing and invited me to photograph the crows. She’d been feeding them for 20 years, she told me, and Crow-chow and Cat-chow were the current alpha pair. Sometimes they would take crackers and bury them so they could come back and get more. As I took pictures, she kept coming in and out of the house, talking to me and the crows. It was wonderful. Then she got in her car and drove off, and I walked west on 67th Street toward 28th Avenue.

I was not sure whether these birds were American crows or northwestern crows, which tend to be more coastal. They did look a little small to me, which fits the description of a northwestern crow in Sibley’s guide to western birds.