Pat was on her way to the grocery store. When she backed out of the garage, there were two crows circling the driveway. One was the bird with the mangled foot, and she figured the other one was the Talker. They flew ahead of her for a block and a half. They flew ahead of her for a block and a half. When she stopped at a stop sign, they flew a big circle, did a flyby on the car, squawking at her all the while, and then flew away. They had  just been providing a friendly  escort.

Pat went out to check the crow’s water and discovered that one of the crows had left her a gift. It was a cleanly cut 10” branch. It looked like one of the neighbors had been pruning, and a crow had selected the nice cut-off for Pat.

One time, Pat went to Costco. When she got out of the car a crow was circling overhead and talking to her. There were other people in the parking lot, but no crows were talking to them.  Was this one of Pat’s crows that followed her from home? Or, have Pat’s crows been telling the rest of the crow world that she is a nice lady, and they should have a word with her?

Meanwhile, the crow with the mangled foot shows up and flies past the window several times. Pat sees the crow but is busy and doesn’t go out.  The crow gets up on the stoop and peeks   in the side window of the front door. After a bit, Pat goes out and scatters some bread and English Walnuts. As she watches, each crow picks up an English walnut and dunks it in the water bowl. I don’t know if this has to do with cleanliness or it makes them easier to swallow.

To eat an English walnut, a crow holds it down with it’s foot and then pecks at it. There are always some small crumbs the crows can’t get. Not to worry, as a clean up crew is on the job. There are two sparrows that come in and clean up the nut crumbs and breadcrumbs. The sparrows get there right after the crows arrive. I don’t know what alerts them. Do the understand crow talk, or do they just watch for the crows? The crows and the sparrows get along, so everything is fine.

Dave Thomas

5/23/2024