Crows- 6 3/4 Me-1/4 maybe

Thursday's Goodies: steak bits.

And the days weather? Sleet. Sleet. And more sleet.

I glance out the kitchen window to see if there's any change. What? There is a crow strutting towards the goodie stump and the steak bits. (Yes, they definitely strut. No, not steak bits, Crows.)

Pretending not to see the crow, I walk across the kitchen as if I'm going to the closet. Keeping a profile the entire way to the tripod, still profile, I turn on the camera. He's still there though giving me a gimlet eye and no longer strutting. In order to focus the camera I'm going to have lean down and actually face him. Boom. He's up and....AND he's landing in a tree that is actually this side of the park. Okay, that's progress. I get at least a quarter point.

Crow peers over a twig at me. Then settles down to a good preen.

Crow then preens and preens some more. There are a number of these sequences where Crow appears to find preening far more important than keeping an eye on me.

Suddenly Crow's head goes up and looks fixedly over the house. Good grief, I can see his entire head for a change. There must be something either fascinating or important over there for him to be so exposed.

Whatever it is, it must be innocuous. Crow gets back to preening the sleet off his chest.

A second crow arrives. The two then face each other, upper torso feathers slightly raised and bob their heads from the bottom of their necks, rapidly up and down, up and down, up and down, up and down. I get the impression they are vocalizing but being behind glass I can't hear them. As I said it's just an impression.

But immediately thereafter Second looks at me from under a branch. Did First "tell" him in some way?

Second shakes off the sleet.

Interesting that like a duo of perched hawks they keep watch in separate directions, neither of which is towards me. Could it be they've decided I'm reasonably harmless...or maybe just beneath notice?

Then for no reason whatsoever that I can see or hear they're up and off.

What an anti-climax. I feel utterly dis'd.

So that's what it is with crows. For some reason, when I bring up crows with the local people I heari stories about people attempting to shoot crows but failing.

I keep wondering just why people have this irresistible urge to shoot at crows in the first place. No one eats crow, except metaphorically. But now I'm beginning to get it. If one is anthropomorphizing them, they seem downright snotty. They strut. They exclude. If one isn't considered a threat one no longer even gets the time of day. They have secrets, they're private. They're the cool kids in high school who won't let the other kids into the group. It's the feeling of disrespect one gets from them. They are rudely aloof. Being humans we like to feel important or at least noticed for goodness sake.

Whereas a song bird either doesn't notice you because it hasn't seen you yet, or if it does it keeps a vigilant eye on you the entire time you're around. We're important if not loved. The Red-tails? City hawks at least, give a feeling of the whole. Pale Male sitting on one of his favorite perches observing his territory surveys the whole, giving each thing his interest and focus periodically. Humans, the pond, the squirrels, the trees, we're all included. But the Crows give one the impression that one is most definitely not included in whatever important matter they have going and they're not even going to let you know what it is either.

Fascinating.

Donegal Browne