Volunteer Spotlight: Andy McCoy

In 2022 Andy joined Loudoun Wildlife Conservancy and shortly thereafter got involved with the Wildlife Sanctuary Program (WSP) (formerly Audubon at Home). His assistance through volunteering with the program has been invaluable, and his own yard received WSP certification in August 2024.

Andy’s favorite thing in nature is the scavenger animals — nature’s cleanup crew that consumes dead animals that have died due to other causes (car strikes, illness) or the remains of a predator’s meal. Andy specifically mentions vultures and corvids (crows and ravens) because they receive little appreciation despite “being the backbone of our functioning ecosystems”. Additionally, he admires them for their “amazing and astounding skills”, adding:

Scavenger bird: Common Raven.
Photo by Jim Clark

Vultures can digest botulism and other diseases that would harm humans because of the strength of their stomach acid, though it doesn’t seem to help against avian diseases. They also lack the vocal structures needed to make “calls” that we would recognize.

Corvids (including the crows and ravens in our area) can talk better than parrots and learn more words. They can also use tools and plan multi-step solutions to problems that involve using one tool to get a separate tool that is necessary to get food.

I also think it’s very interesting that foxes and corvids (as well as wolves and corvids) have been observed engaging in play activities and socializing together, showing that cross-species friendships can be acceptable among non-humans.

Many thanks to Andy, and to all our volunteers, for helping protect, preserve and restore wildlife-friendly habitats.