Crow
Crow
My desk is by the window and as I work I enjoy watching the visitors - we have a rich variety of visitors. Foxes, squirrels, magpies, gulls, a pair of collared doves, wood pigeons, starlings, blue tits, great tits, greenfinches, and my favourite - Crow.
There are quite a few crows around here, but the one in the picture is Crow because his territory is largely in my view. It took me a little while to realise that the same crow was the one entertaining me - but I don't think it took him as long to clock me.
He often sits on the skeleton tree opposite my window tap-tap-tapping his beak, or caw-ing about some issue or other. I have noticed him hiding things at one spot in the garden behind some tall leaves. I'm intrigued by this behaviour since we have so many squirrels around - but so far he has only been foiled by one of the magpies who pinched a large bread crust.
I have seen him arguing with the squirrels on more than one occasion. Just the other day a squirrel was pottering about bouncing across the grass when Crow swooped down and seemed to be trying to intimidate the squirrel. Squirrel was having none of it and hoicked up from it's back legs to retaliate. I think Crow was a bit mortified actually and got a bit flustered. Later he had a mid air "discussion" with a magpie that was far more entertaining than any Red Arrows display I've seen. No feathers were lost but there was some loud tapping on that tree afterwards!
Crow also demonstrates his clever side - yesterday he had some bread and I watched him dumping it in the dog water bowl. "What on earth is he up to now?" thought I. He dumped it in and took it out and held it with a claw and tried to eat, then dumped it in the water again. It seems that the bread was stale and he was soaking it so he could eat it.
Crow is part of the songbird family because of the construct of it's voice box - it said by some that Crow will sometimes sing when it is alone. Perhaps Crow is rising in my worlds just now to teach me about using my voice... or perhaps it's something more mundane - they are fastidiously tidy creatures!
![[del.icio.us]](http://taexalia.me/blog/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/delicious.png)
![[Facebook]](http://taexalia.me/blog/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/facebook.png)
![[Reddit]](http://taexalia.me/blog/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/reddit.png)
![[StumbleUpon]](http://taexalia.me/blog/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/stumbleupon.png)
![[Technorati]](http://taexalia.me/blog/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/technorati.png)
![[Twitter]](http://taexalia.me/blog/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/twitter.png)
Tags: beasties, crow, watching wildlife
Posted on April 23, 2007 in Birds, Garden Wildlife, Wildlife, Window Wildlife.
Pathworking
what a lovely post! I’ve never had the opportunity to watch a crow that closely – but they are smart and I lov ehaving them around the yard.
Our new house sits in a grove of very old oak trees. We have a lot oaf crows. At times we can hear them cawing all at once. The other day, I pulled intothe driveway and there were three crows on the front lawn. They all flew up to the lowest branch of the closest oak tree in unison. It looked like synchronized crow flying. I wonder if it that is an event in the bird olympics or if they were practicing for a winged ballet.