Spring is here. The canyons are greening up. The wildflowers are blooming. The birds, bugs, and small animals have plenty of food again. The sad part of it is that the crows have found a new food source and aren’t coming around every day. Some of the crows have found  a new friend in Pat and will still be coming to visit her. She speaks in a soft and caring voice, and they listen carefully until it is their turn. Also, when Terri comes over or Pat is returning from the store, the crows spot them and follow them to our house. When they get out of the car, the crows do a fly-by and then circle them in a greeting. Sometimes, we don’t see the crows for a few days, and they don’t always eat. The two crows that still show up the most are the guy with the mangled foot and The Talker. I’ll give you an account of how a recent visit went.

This morning Pat went outside and gave the food call and scattered the food in the driveway. No crows showed up. Pat went back in the house and then decided on the laundry she had going in the garage. We keep a remote garage door clicker in the living room as it is faster to go out the front door and into the garage then it is to go to the back of the house and into the garage. The crows know the sound of our garage door opening, and always respond by flying past and looking in. The crows saw Pat and immediately peeled off and flew to the top of the liquid amber tree next door. Pat realized that this was The Talker as it always likes to do its talking from the top of the tree.  Pat walked out onto the drive, and, immediately, the crow with the mangled foot came swooping in and landed in front of Pat. It walked up to about four feet in front of her, bobbing its head in greeting. Pat starts talking. “How are you? I was so worried because I hadn’t seen you for four days. I guess you found a new source of food, and that’s fine. I miss you guys a lot and am thankful you are visiting this morning.” The crow cocks his head and listens as it walks back and forth in front of her. Meanwhile, The Talker sees that Pat is talking to the mangled foot guy and gets all excited. It starts hopping around on the branch it is standing on and talking up a blue streak. The conversation goes on for a while. Neither bird shows any interest in the food. After a few minutes, Pat goes into the house, and the birds fly away. It was just a visit to let Pat know that they were okay and to find out if she was the same.

Dave Thomas

5/2/2024