counting coots

I have wittered on about which birds like to eat apple cores in the past. Gulls no, Coots yes. Crows also like to have nibble on a core. In the summer the normal procedure would be to eat a bit and feed some to a vocal youngster.  As per this pic from the Counting Coots library of stunning photography.

However, the times have moved on. The manky brown plumage has been replaced with a shiny black set of feathers and the youngsters are less likely to be begging for food. So yesterday I ate an apple and chucked the core onto the foreshore.  This time however, the Crow (probably not the same one as before) ate a little of the apple core, golden delicious, and then picked it up and hopped over to a large rock where it pushed it right under the open side. (It may be worth noting that it picked the area of the rock on my blind side.)   It then turned to a stone nearby, picked it up and wedged it up against the apple core.  Securing it in a future larder type situation.  This took no more than two minutes, and the Crow at no point seemed to be considering what it was doing, it looked more like this is something it is used to doing.  How long it thought that it might keep the food for I don't know as the location of the rock is below the high tide mark.  Might give another go today.  In the interests of Science and all that...