Why are the crows lifting the pink gravel from my driveway?

Answer 1

In June 1996, trains made several emergency stops
due to stones laid on railroad tracks in Yokohama,
Kanagawa Prefecture, central Japan. Staking out the
scene of the sabotage, the police discovered who had
done it. Surprisingly, the culprit was a crow. It was
one of a pair of carrion crows (Corvus corone) that
held a territory in the neighborhood. The carrion
crow was video-taped while placing stones on the
tracks, and the pictures were broadcast on television.
The news of the stone-placing crow was carried in
newspapers and magazines as well. It was a mystery,
however, what made the crow do it. Thus we set
about unraveling the mystery. On-site observation
and analysis of the videotapes recorded by the media
revealed the details of the crow’s behavior. This
crow affair also provided a good opportunity to reflect
on how to associate with wildlife in human
landscapes.
In this article, we report on the background of the
incident, details of the crow behavior, and the mechanism
of the incident. This is basically a translation
of our Japanese article (Higuchi & Morishita, 1997),
but we added here some further information on similar
incidents in other areas of Japan.
2. A Brief Sketch of the Incident
Stones were laid on railroad tracks during June and
July 1996. A Carrion Crow was observed or videotaped
putting stones on the tracks on seven occasions
during 23 days between June 8 and June 30 by police
or TV crews. On the other hand, during a total of 97
hours and 2 minutes between July 13 and July 31, the
authors and cooperators observed the stone- placing
behavior only twice. During June and July 1996,
therefore, the carrion crow was sighted placing stones
on the railroad tracks on nine occasions in total (Table
1).
Stones were laid on the tracks primarily on rainy or
cloudy days, especially early in the morning or
evening. The locations of the stones were concentrated
along the tracks within about 100 m of the Iijima
Overpass in the Sakae district of Yokohama. The
Iijima Overpass is located between Totsuka and Ofuna
Stations on the Japan Railroad (JR) Yokosuka Line,
the JR Tokaido Line and a freight train line. No
apparent preference for particular tracks of these lines
was observed.
A pair of carrion crows held a territory in the
vicinity of the Iijima Overpass (we call this the “Iijima
pair” hereafter). Within about 2 km of this overpass
were four other pairs of crows holding territories.
Adjacent to the Iijima pair, there were a territorial pair
of jungle crows (Corvus macrorhynchos) to the north,
to the side of Totsuka Station, and a pair of carrion
crows to the south, toward Ofuna Station (Fig. 1).
Neither pair adjacent to the Iijima pair put any stones
on the tracks. Within the Iijima pair, it was only one
individual that laid stones on the tracks. This
individual had a characteristic white patch on its wing,
and was easy to identify....

There are tons of stories about this sort of thing Crows do.....
Check out the link..
Great question

Answer 2

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Answer 3

If they are just taking the pink gravel they must be attracted to the color and think that it resembles some type of food.

Answer 4

Same reason that family of albino wildebeast that live in the house across the road keep breathing and smiling at you in that strange way.

Stop taking the drugs.

Answer 5

yo have pink gravel on your driveway? maybe they've thought of it as a nice accent on their nests, too...

Answer 6

Because they are gay, and are going to make jewellery with your pretty gravel Lol. Seriously, I have no idea

Answer 7

Either because they like the colour, or they need it in their gullets to grind up food

Answer 8

crows like shiny things

Answer 9

May be to them it looks like some insect or some food they like.

Answer 10

It makes their droppings like tracers, and they can hit your car hood better,lol