There are a lot of crows on the farm, usually I dread them at lambing time. They seem to lurk around new borns, waiting for the boon of fresh placenta. I sometimes wonder if there is something more sinister and that they wait for an opportunity to pluck the eyes of said newborns - I am yet to witness this. They do however have a merry feast over dead lambs. For this reason I began to loathe them where before I hadn't. Oh, they also very cannily spy out the chickens fresh laid eggs and nab them if I'm not quick. Bloke went on a bit of a crow rampage at one point and we dubbed him the crow cowboy. But now I'm not so sure that my venom is warranted. I enjoyed reading this and did take the time to check on a fledgling crow squatting quite calmly and naively on the drive eying me as keenly as I eyed it - all was fine. The other day I spotted a pair ripping up old carpet presumably for nest building purposes. Perhaps a more considered Naturalist in the making, in the looking.
This looks interesting. I have a marked respect for the humble crow - this came after watching a David Attenborough documentary where crows were dropping hard shelled nuts onto the road at traffic lights. They'd drop them when the lights were red, wait for cars to run over them and crush the nuts when the lights went green, and then pick out the soft inner nut when the cars were stopped at the red light again. Pretty smart. Also I witnessed a crow funeral in my back yard once - a stack of crows cawing and freaking out around a dead crow. It was strange and kind of sad. Apparently they really do mourn their dead. Still, can't be nice having them hanging around newborn lambs with their beady crow eyes.
ReplyDeleteThey are amazing, I admire their tenacity. The author makes reference to witnessing such things as well. Needless to say we have put the 'Crow Cowboy' to rest.
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