I come by my love of black-feathered birds naturally. Long before I knew that my Danish maiden name literally translates to “crow grove”, as a child I would spend hours watching and listening to the raucous birds in the trees around me.
My goodness, they are smart birds. My fascination with them has only grown into admiration as time has gone on. At my favourite beach, I have a friend I call Charles; he used to come to sit on a sign post when he saw my car each day. Unfortunately COVID-19 has disrupted this ritual, along with so much else. I was sad when I didn’t see him there yesterday.
Today as I sat writing at my desk, I had a feeling I was being watched. A glance out the window showed me why: a crow was sitting in the branches of the nearby tree, looking in at me — or, more accurately, at my lunch.
His (her? their? I didn’t want to presume) head cocked back and forth. I smiled and shrugged helplessly, gesturing to the window between us. With a disgusted caw, the bird gave one last head tilt and took off for less-daft human company.
The chances of it being my friend Charles are very slim. (I live nearly 8 km / 5 miles from the beach, as the crow flies.)
But let’s pretend anyway.
This post was created as part of Two Writing Teachers’ Slice of Life Challenge.
You can view other writers’ contributions via the comments here.
I share in your love for crows and ravens. They are fascinating!
Aren’t they, Rebecca? I could watch them for HOURS!
Oh, I love this. We have a neighbourhood raven who is slightly lame. He sits in trees, on cars, on telephone wires, in bushes and fusses at all of us as we go about our days. I actually think he *likes* covid since so many more people are at home. 🙂
He probably loves the increased entertainment factor!
My husband has a crow call and loves to call them in! Have you ever read the book Crow Call by Lois Lowry? I love this book!! Gorgeous illustrations!
Oh, I need a crow call! I will have to find one! And thank you so much for the book recommendation. I will definitely look for it!
It was certainly a memorable moment! I wonder if I will receive a visit tomorrow. 🙂
My dear friend Katie LOVES crows for many of the same reasons — so of course it doesn’t surprise me that you also love them. They’re certainly lovely birds and I wish I had befriended some like that. I guess I’ll stick with the mafia of Cardinals that of claimed my bird feeder.
Cardinals are such beautiful birds! We have two pairs in our yard (rival families?) and I love to watch them. I especially love listening to their Space Invader laser calls (pew-pew-pew-pew!).
Could be. Or could be the mafia boss and his successor. I had a whole drama imagined for the birds as I watched them at my feeder a few years ago. Then I got kind of inconsistent with resupplying the bird feed and so I lost some of my colorful characters (I had a huge bluejay stop by once). I’m hoping to rebuild though.
Fun to read your post today. On my morning walk I was taking pictures of crows in the trees along the small pond in our neighborhood. They were having quite the conversation as I walked by. They are fascinating birds.
On behalf of your new friend: Does that window not open?
Thanks for sharing this!
I love this! I’m sure it’s Charles. For me, it’s egrets. I’m convinced my same friends look for me during my regular beach walks…
Kim