“The Crow and I” (October 1st, 2023)

A very quick but wonderful “Crow Update.”

Yesterday morning, I went for my morning walk and the crows were not in the park (the one by the sea was there, though.)

I returned home and started doing whatever (probably writing that post.) At some point, I went to the living room, and I saw my son reading a book in a dark corner. I pulled open the curtains of the window next to him. These curtains often stay closed in the morning when it’s sunny, but it wasn’t sunny.

A few seconds after I opened the curtains, I heard a loud “caw.”
While it’s rare, it’s not the first time that the crows make their presence known when I open curtains. However, this caw was very very close.

I went to the balcony and lo and behold, Mr. Crow was standing on the cable closest to our balcony:

I walked a little closer…

and closer…

I couldn’t believe my eyes. He was not flying away. While we do have some sort of relationship, his trust in me is still very limited. In the park, he won’t approach me at less than 2-3 meters, and only to grab a peanut, and only if I pretend to not pay attention. There, he was as close. Probably two meters away. But he knew that he was out of reach. So we just looked at each other. I talked to him, and he listened to me, while watching me. That was one of the best encounters I had with him yet.

Of course, I knew why he was there. Our relationship is still mostly based around me giving him peanuts. So I threw a couple in my yard under the balcony. He went to get them eventually.

The awesome part is that he was so close, that I could crop these close-ups from the previous two pictures:

It makes me think that I should start bringing my DSLR camera to my crow encounters soon. I use the camera less and less, only for shooting videos from home these days. Smartphone cameras have become so good. However, for close-ups and such, they still have some way to go before beating a proper camera.

Oh and here is  a bonus picture from this morning.

I’m not sure who that is. It was waiting for me this morning as I was getting ready to leave for work, but this was not our usual “morning spot” and it didn’t want to come down (it waited until we were gone.) I’m pretty sure it’s not Mr. Crow, and I’m not totally sure it’s Ms. Crow either. I’m kind of wondering whether it could be Junior, looking for its parents, and “hanging out” with us waiting for them. Hmmm… No probably just Ms. Crow…