Ordinarily, either three crows or five crows would show up for breakfast.  However, these last few days only two had come in. We were lucky in that it was Lame Foot and Clucker who were easy to recognize. Pat put out some food for them and then went back into the house. Suddenly, one of the crows started cawing, and Pat looked out and saw that it was Lame Foot.  He was giving a set of 3 caws over and over again.  The sounds were raspy and seemed to come from deeper in the throat than usual. After a couple of minutes of thism crows started landing on the driveway and they kept coming, one after another, until there were sixteen of them. They were both hungry and thirsty, and they really went after the food and water. Lame Foot and Clucker flew up and perched on the edge of the garage roof and watched or supervised the feast. Apparently, the crows hadn’t found a food source that morning and really needed some help. Pat had to replenish the food to get them filled up.

I understand that crows are just crows. However, they become quite interesting when you learn of their intelligence and some of the human-like traits they sometimes display. In today’s story, Lame Foot showed examples of his leadership ability   and his feelings of empathy and compassion for members of his feathered community.

Crows seem to know something about training, too. Lame Foot was one of the group of five crows that were being fed by Pat every day. Boss Crow was the leader of the group,                      and he strode around aggressively and jabbered incessantly. He would come right up to within two feet of Pat and would say what was on his mind. Meanwhile, Lame Foot just sat back and watched and listened as a good trainee should and never said a word.

When Boss Crow left, Lame Foot stepped up and took the leadership position. There was no question of who was in charge. Lame Foot handled the job easily. He continues to show up every day, and the other crows recognize that he is still the boss.

Dave Thomas

8/7/2025