While running a charterboat year-round out of Santa Barbara Harbor for decades, my crew, Capt. Tiffany Vague and I, got to know quite a number of wild critters, and this was an awesome blessing because critters are definitely cool.

Here is a story of a very impressive crow.

One day while Tiffany was cleaning our boat and I was writing logs after a charter, a couple of seagulls we knew well were marching back and forth screeching as seagulls are wont to do.

They were hoping for scraps of fish and bait pieces (we do not intentionally feed the birds) that got washed off with the hose.

These two particular seagulls had adopted us years before and showed up to welcome us back after every charter. One we named “What” and the other is “Up” and together we call them the “WhatUp” birds. They were characters.

It was a typical day with our old buddy birds until suddenly a big black crow swooped down from the sky with a raucous and alarming cry of its own. It boldly landed on the dock just five feet from the two seagulls.

A long and tense moment ensued as the seagulls and that crow stared each other down. The WhatUp birds seemed to be saying, “Go ahead and make our day.”

The seagulls lunged to peck and scare away the intruder, but the gutsy crow defended itself admirably. It was an intense stand off so Tiffany and I stayed motionless watching the scene unfold.

Ultimately, the gulls had to share the scraps with the crow, but it was done with a grudge and a grump. If you know seagulls well, you know exactly what I mean.

That crow stuck around for months and proved to be an adaptive learner, willing to change its diet to match opportunities.

He learned how the seagulls and night herons fed. He couldn’t quite swallow those anchovies and sardines, like the other birds, so he just pecked out the soft body cavity and ate what it could.

He also figured out that dead fish are much easier to catch than live ones, and his palate was not so sensitive that it strongly preferred the live ones as did the gulls. That crow quickly became a seafood lover.

The newcomer also had to figure out (the hard way) how it fit into the pecking order, and we watched some of those challenges. It barely held its own against seagulls.

Night herons are a tougher adversary, even if more complacent than seagulls. Blue herons rule the harbor and act like a nightmare in action when they get angry.

Two little swallows that lived nearby were the crow’s biggest problems because they despised the bigger bird and they had incredible speed and accuracy. They flew high-speed pecking forays, putting the hurt on the crow’s head when it didn’t duck quickly enough.

All-in-all, Tiffany and I had to feel proud of that adaptive crow.