American Crows at my very small bird bath

[jmcquown]

Too bad my camera went kaput a couple of weeks ago.

I saw three large American crows

https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/American_Crow/id

at my my rather small bird bath. One of them brought a pine cone with
it. Played with it a bit, then dipped it in the water. Then it took it
onto the patio and pushed it around.

Curious behavior! Is it a toy or a source of food? It carried it over
onto the grass and pushed the pine cone around before flying off with
it. The other crows didn't pay any attention to it and there are other
pine cones on the ground so it doesn't seem like a source of food. I
wonder if the bird just wanted to play ball?

Note: It is not far off from tomato harvest season so there are
certainly reasons for the crows to start coming around. Not too far
into the future I'll start hearing air cannons booming to keep the crows
away from the nearby tomato fields and corn crops.

Still and all, they deserve some fresh water just like any other bird.
And one of them appears to have a pet pine cone. ;)

Jill