Al_Batt_Crow

We have all seen them on the road. Large black birds feeding on a skunk or opossum that had been unlucky in its road crossing endeavors. Just when you think a speeding Buick is going to hit them, the birds use their 3-foot wingspans to fly up into the air, neatly avoiding a collision, and then land behind the car before the car's exhaust fumes have cleared the air.

They don't miss a bite of the rancid roadkill chef's surprise. How do they do it? It's simple. I am about to let you in on a crow secret that has been kept from man since the first car hit the road. The crows have a Watchcrow on duty at all times. As soon as a car starts getting too close, the watchcrow cries, “Car! Car! Car!” and everyone flaps to safety. True story? Perhaps. But one thing that cannot be denied is that crows are smart, even if they do eat carrion. Henry Ward Beecher said, “If men wore feathers and wings, a very few of them would be clever enough to be crows.” They are the class valedictorian of the bird school. You do not sneak up on a crow. You will rarely see a crow that doesn't see you first. It seems like they don't pay much attention to people unless some human has a gun. Then the crows become scarce. I have chased crows away by pointing a rifle-sized stick at them.

My father told me that he found out that crows could count to at least six. In his youth, he participated in crow hunts. If there were six hunters in a grove and the crows spotted them, the crows would not come close until all six of the hunters had walked out of the woods.

There are those who say that Noah should have drowned both crows when he had a chance. Pay these people no mind as they say the same thing about mosquitoes and what would we do for exercise in the summer if we didn't have skeeters to swat?

A crow has a number of unflattering things said about him. He is an accused and convicted corn thief. People talk about having “to eat crow”, “to crow about something” and to have “crow's feet”. The crow has been associated with some unsavory characters in folklore, books and movies. The crow was often depicted as the pet of some evil sorcerer or doer of black magic.

Who is the crow really? A member of the Corvidae family, which includes ravens, jays and magpies, the crows are one of our most intelligent of wild birds. Besides vacuuming our roads of roadkill and feeding his corn habit, the crow will eat eggs he has stolen, the occasional nestling, earthworms, garbage, salamanders and dead fish. An ice fisherman friend of mine tells me of watching a crow pull a fish line out of the hole in the ice and eating the minnow that was serving as bait. The fisherman said the bird chopped the fish into bits before eating it, being careful to avoid injury from the hook.

The crow is not a complete bad guy though, as it consumes a lot of cutworms, grubs, snails, grasshoppers, caterpillars, crickets, beetles and mice. A crow does little without the accompaniment of cacophonous cawing. I always get the feeling they are talking about me.

A group of crows is called a murder. Some scientists believe that in each murder of crows, each member makes a sound that it and only it makes. There is some speculation that this may be its name.

The various noises (I try, but I can't call them songs) that the crows produce are one of the ways I am able to find owls in the daytime. Crows love to mob owls. It's a spectator sport to them not unlike a NFL game is to many people. To mock a killing bird. I used to feel sorry for the owls, thinking “Why don't those crows leave that poor owl alone? Don't they know that he works nights? He needs to get his sleep.” Then I discovered that owls get their revenge by going into crow colonies at night and turning a crow or two into a crow casserole.

Many crows mate for life and spend the entire year together. They work as a team building a nest of sticks, lined with grasses and plant fibers, 20 to 30 feet up in a tree. There 3 to 6 bluish-green eggs marked with gray or brown blotches are laid. The female incubates the eggs for 18 days and the young stay in the nest for 5 weeks. The young crows will stay with their parents for up to 6 years to help raise their younger siblings. There are records of crows taking care of old or partially blind family members. An able crow will help lead the aged to water. Crows feel at home most everywhere, adjusting easily to most habitats. Once simple country folks, crows have become citified and street-smart. They like cities because it is warmer in town--the buildings block the wind and the heat escapes from buildings. There are usually fewer crow-eating owls inside the city limits, another definite plus if you are a crow searching for an apartment. Owls prey on crows at night, as the crows are helpless in the dark.

Crows can sometimes be a bit of a problem in a garden. When I was a boy, my dog Rex and I would chase the crows out of our garden so often that both boy and dog had nearly reached the point of exhaustion. Crows can fly at 30 miles per hour and they would taunt us from a safe distance. I decided it would save a lot of running if I built a scarecrow to do the chasing for me. I built a nasty-looking scarecrow. I must confess that it was so scary that I was not without some fear while building the thing. I put my new creation out in the garden, feeling a little sorry for what the crows were going to have to go through. I needn't have worried. Before the scarecrow's first day in the garden was over, the crows were using him as a perch. It was a perfect place for them to sit, preen their feathers and discuss the stupidity of humans.

As a last ditch attempt to save Rex and myself many steps, I put a mirror in the garden. I leaned one of my sister's old mirrors (I needed mine and girls always have an ample supply of mirrors) against my formerly spooky scarecrow. I thought this would confuse the crows right out of the county. The next day, when I went to check on my clever solution to our crow problem, I found that my sister's mirror had fallen prey to a dastardly deed. It was covered from top to bottom by crow poop. It had to be an intentional act as their aim was very good.

©Al Batt