Yesterday, I had to leave for work early. I’d put bird food out the back, but the dog was getting picked up by marvelous miracle Shauna so I didn’t take him to the park. So I didn’t feel the crows.
There was ice on the car windscreen so I had to go back inside for the nasty chemical spray then sit in the stationary vehicle while the engine heated and started to combat the ice and mist on the screen. As I pulled out, I heard a cawing and saw one of the Driveway Trio screaming at me.
Nearly every day, morning definitely and often afternoon, they are watching and waiting. How do they know when I am coming out? They’ll be on the tree up the road or on the roof of the house opposite and start swooping around from tree to tree as I walk.
One of them, let’s call her Diva of the Driveway, flies around and around as I go through the park. She gets chased by everyone, but it doesn’t seem to put her off. She wants to make sure that I go back and give them their seconds. And SOON.
The day before, CD did a little trick – he picked up a small stick and threw it with his foot. He might have been disgusted as a few days earlier he’d found a small bone and invested time trying to get at the marrow. He might have realised this stick offered no tasty morsel and been frustrated with it.
There was a big kerfuffle between the Playground Pair and the Brave Three. This was odd as the PPs are very pacific and seemed to have a rather harmonious relationship with the Brave Three. I was watching Droopy and CD when both flew off screaming – real fear or fury. I stood waiting. I saw in the distance some dive-bombing of the PPs, who were, truth be told, in the no-man’s-land between the two territories.
I was actually worried that the third of the Brave Three had been hurt – it felt like… it felt… desperate. I’d seen CD get really riled by the Driveway Three – but the cawing had a different quality. Yes, desperate.
In the case of the Driveway Three, once they have annoyed the main park residents by encroaching on their territory, sometimes one or two of them (no doubt including Diva) will land in a tall tree and another crow – CD or Mr Fluffy will land in the same tree – this after aerial chases and swooping acrobatics of pursuit and flight. When this happens a kind of… synchronising seems to take place in sound and body movement. One will spread a tail and another will mirror that behaviour. Or they’ll shake in sequence. Or caw and respond. I can’t tell who’s doing what, but it seems to end the antagonism. Or at least tune it down.
Anyway, I walked to a fence that overlooks a bowling green where these crows sometimes hang out. Pigeon feathers were scattered on the lawn. CD returned, landed on the lawn and walked toward the feathers looking at them and at me. He may have thought a) there’s been a murder, b) where’s the carrion for me to eat? Or c) so, you’ve seen me, where’s my dog treat? Then he fled again.
In a while, Droopy returned and then CD. They perched in a tree next to me. Looking around. On guard. The pair of mistle thrushes flew into the same tree and stayed there while the crows waited. It was almost as if the crows offered them protection. I started looking out for a red kite. The kites do come here at times. It would make sense of events. The pigeon… the crows… the thrushes..
Noise from the PPs, on the ground to my left, still in no-man’s-land. An extra crow seemed to be present. CD flew off and then appeared over there. Droopy stayed where she was. The mistle thrushes, one by one, flew up to a big tree where there was a small flock of twittering little birds.
Perhaps the threat was over.
I showed Droopy the pot of cat food. She likes cat food but isn’t yet completely convinced that the pot isn’t evil. I shook it so she could hear and tipped some on the floor so she could see. I backed off. She flew down and, clever greedy thing, CD reappeared to take the lion’s share. I saw the third crow in the background.
I felt like I’d left a battle site where a battle only took place in a parallel universe.
Diva was waiting for seconds on the other side of the path, with her parents.
By the way, on novel objects – here you see two crows trying to get something out of a bag. I think it was CD and Droopy – CD taking the initiative.
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