Are they becoming a pair?

The drifting has been stupendous during the last two days. The Juncos are sinking into the snow in some spots again when they land. They're having to do the Junco Swim in some cases in order to get their feet back to the surface.

11:20am Doorstep Dove drops in for an early lunch with Friend in tow. (All times Central.)

2:46pm The minute and a half of sun we got today. The Birds used it to sing like mad things.

5:50pm I look out and Doorstep Dove and Friend are having dinner. Unfortunately I get too close with the camera and Friend takes off. DD watches him go, looks at me, then continues to peck more seed. After a few minutes she disappears as well.

5:55 Wait, there she is and there Friend is too-in the frozen Bird Bath.

5:58pm If you squint your eyes their bodies make a heart. (Sorry, sappy quotient is a terribly high, but it really does look a little like one if you squish your eyes a lot.)

Sunset is pink tonight against the clouds. As they're looking the wrong direction, they're probably not waiting for the eclipse. It would be in vain anyway. The sun only found a crack in the clouds once today so the lunar eclipse was completely obscured by them in this area.

6:00 They continue to sit together and watch.

6:19 I must be too active for Friend as he looks at me and then attempts to get up. Somehow he can't. He flaps his wings but doesn't go anywhere for a second or two. Then he's off. Is it possible that his body heat melted the ice in the bath slightly, it refroze as the temperature dropped, and his feet were stuck?

Doorstep Dove continues her late day ritual of "watching the sunset". (Even if Friend hadn't come out to the bath, if DD really were really watching the sunset she wouldn't have been able to see it from the step as the drift across the picnic table is too high. She wouldn't have been able to see it. I lay down on the step and checked. So I got covered in bird seed and snow. It's all for science, right? I did loose the chance though to find out if not being able to see the horizon would make a difference in her when position when she decided to follow Friend.)

7:01 Sunset is over. Doorstep Dove stands up, looks at me, then looks up at Friend.

7:02 Then she's off and to the N and no doubt, a roost. Friend, waiting in an adjacent Maple, hot wings it after her.

Donegal Browne

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

Emu Feathers, Juncos, and Doorstep Dove (Crow Saga Tomorrow)

Harry Studebaker, the owner of Emmie the Emu, gave me one of Emmie's feathers. They are really quite fascinating and well, odd, compared with the usual North American ones I see. But then again isn't everything that comes from Down Under. In a way they remind me more of foliage than of feathers. Okay, I admit, you do have to ignore the fact they aren't green to get the foliage effect.

Emu feathers are double stalked from one shaft. That is the feathers on the body are anyway. I've not gotten one of the short curly ones that grow on Emmie's head to check out if it's universal for all their feathers.

Junco who is currently king of the picnic table as he's run off the competition. This tough guy seems to have just the slightest touch of black on the tip of his beak.

Black Tip in the midst of swallowing a seed. See the long toes?

Black Tip heads out, feet disappearing in the fresh sleet. When there is several inches of new powder snow, so fluffy that it won't even bear a Juncos weight when landing, the Juncos disappear almost completely into the snow and have to "swim" their way out with their wings after landing. Once those longs toes spread though, they often can get around with only their feet disappearing. How do those amazingly teensy legs keep from freezing off? I realize they have special blood vessels to keep their exposed parts warm but still...

DOORSTEP DOVE

At 5:45pm when I looked for Doorstep Dove she wasn't on the step. Oh dear! I looked up. There she was in the nearest tree, complete with her friend just a twig away. I spread seed on the step and they both stayed put instead of taking off in a frenzy. Looks like Friend is less skittish than the average dove as well. Could there be a romance budding in the backyard?