There are a LOT of crows out this morning. It’s weird and — writerbrain working overtime as it always does — frankly a bit unsettling.
When I was walking Radar, we saw two complaining crows come flying out of a tree, being harassed by smaller birds. Not unusual for crows to go raiding nests for food and get chased away by focused attacks by the parents of said eggs.
But then we heard others. Farther away.
And then others.
And, a few minutes ago, others again. I’m not (I’m not, brain) taking it as an omen, or anything. But it’s… let’s call it “an interesting and unusual pattern” and leave it at that. Until they show up en masse on my porch, that is.
Some quick fun facts about crows:
– Crows (and ravens) are among the most intelligent species on the planet, considered at peak to be on par with seven-year-old humans(!) and chimpanzees. They have been seen in labs executing multiple steps to resolve a problem (think along the lines of accomplishing a puzzle to get an object that is needed to accomplish another puzzle to get an object that is needed to solve a puzzle to get the prize they wanted in the first place). And they have been seen in the wild dipping a cup of dried food into water to rehydrate the food, and pulling slivers of wood from fencing to try to spear prey hiding in a hole. Oh, and they understand water displacement.
– They recognize and remember faces for years, and teach them to each other. Research has demonstrated that acting aggressive and nasty toward a few crows while wearing a mask, and then going to the same area a decade later in the same mask, has far more crows being unwelcoming to the face they’ve never personally seen.
– Crows like to have fun. This video, which went viral some time ago, shows a crow having some snowy winter fun it wants to keep repeating on a rooftop.