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Figuring It Out Christine HatfullEvery evening before dusk there is a huge murder of crows that fly from everywhere in Vancouver to get to a community of rookeries near our Central Park in Burnaby.
The clouds darken at first with a few little silohuettes of them and grow into a vast flock that
continues for a long time. They all travel in the same direction.
One evening Tim and I parked the car and waited for a friend near the B.C. Tel building in Burnaby and the tree next to us started to fill up with crows. We waited and soon all the other trees had branches weighted down with them. The noise was deafening and the presense became intimidating.
We call crows ravens in this part of the country. They are larger than crows I have seen any where else and they are smarter and more aggressive. They have fallen out of balance and have an expanding population that has decimated our wild song bird population.
I once watched a crow taking a lid off my garbage can and taking out what it wanted. I watched another crow find a plastic bag , fill it with tasty morsels and fly away carrying the bag. It is not uncommon to see them dropping shellfish from high in the air to smash open on the ground.
My favourite tiny song birds are ruby throated cisks. Beautiful tiny, yellow wild finch like birds
that fly from my Aunt's garden in the prairies to mine on the Coast. Lately they have nested in the ivy that covers my little cottage. Tiny nests with tiny babies. When I was on chemotherapy I was enjoying the sun through my nausea on my back deck. I had a cane in my hand to help me with my balance. A little flock of them flew around my yard and one landed on my cane and just looked at me for more than a minute. I felt then that I knew I would live and that I was protected.
Last year the little yellow pink throated birds made a nest under my dining room window in the ivy. I could see it. They weren't really aware of me when I watched them.
The babies were just about ready to fly and the crows started coming and checking out the nests. They were like patient farmers just waiting for ripeness. First they grabbed the starlings because the chicks were very plump. Later they hunted the baby robins. They hunted like cats and worked in pairs chasing the little birds from one part of the eves to the other on my neighbour's house. It seemed like they were laughing when they cawed. I tried to chase them away with garden hoses and rocks but they were persistent.
I worried about my little birds and looked out the window on a sunny morning just in time to see them grabbed from the perch on the corner of my eves. The crow flew away with the chick's leg in it's beak and the poor birdy flapping wings for a first and last flight. I was devastated and wondered if my bird feeder also interrupted the balance. I always leave little bits of thread, yarn and torn fabric around so they will weave them into nests. Did it attract the mother bird to an inappropriate and dangerous place to nest?
I have been waiting for the birds again and so have the crows but I don't think they will be back.
The crows , however, took a good look through my ivy today. I knocked on my window and jumped up and down but they just tilted their heads and looked at me like I was a total idiot.
The clouds darken at first with a few little silohuettes of them and grow into a vast flock that
continues for a long time. They all travel in the same direction.
One evening Tim and I parked the car and waited for a friend near the B.C. Tel building in Burnaby and the tree next to us started to fill up with crows. We waited and soon all the other trees had branches weighted down with them. The noise was deafening and the presense became intimidating.
We call crows ravens in this part of the country. They are larger than crows I have seen any where else and they are smarter and more aggressive. They have fallen out of balance and have an expanding population that has decimated our wild song bird population.
I once watched a crow taking a lid off my garbage can and taking out what it wanted. I watched another crow find a plastic bag , fill it with tasty morsels and fly away carrying the bag. It is not uncommon to see them dropping shellfish from high in the air to smash open on the ground.
My favourite tiny song birds are ruby throated cisks. Beautiful tiny, yellow wild finch like birds
that fly from my Aunt's garden in the prairies to mine on the Coast. Lately they have nested in the ivy that covers my little cottage. Tiny nests with tiny babies. When I was on chemotherapy I was enjoying the sun through my nausea on my back deck. I had a cane in my hand to help me with my balance. A little flock of them flew around my yard and one landed on my cane and just looked at me for more than a minute. I felt then that I knew I would live and that I was protected.
Last year the little yellow pink throated birds made a nest under my dining room window in the ivy. I could see it. They weren't really aware of me when I watched them.
The babies were just about ready to fly and the crows started coming and checking out the nests. They were like patient farmers just waiting for ripeness. First they grabbed the starlings because the chicks were very plump. Later they hunted the baby robins. They hunted like cats and worked in pairs chasing the little birds from one part of the eves to the other on my neighbour's house. It seemed like they were laughing when they cawed. I tried to chase them away with garden hoses and rocks but they were persistent.
I worried about my little birds and looked out the window on a sunny morning just in time to see them grabbed from the perch on the corner of my eves. The crow flew away with the chick's leg in it's beak and the poor birdy flapping wings for a first and last flight. I was devastated and wondered if my bird feeder also interrupted the balance. I always leave little bits of thread, yarn and torn fabric around so they will weave them into nests. Did it attract the mother bird to an inappropriate and dangerous place to nest?
I have been waiting for the birds again and so have the crows but I don't think they will be back.
The crows , however, took a good look through my ivy today. I knocked on my window and jumped up and down but they just tilted their heads and looked at me like I was a total idiot.
2 comments:
Sounds like it's time to bring a couple of cats home from the pound.
I have three and the squirrels and crows that used to come around have moved on to safer venues and easier pickings.
Meanwhile my over-fed felines pose little or no threat to the songbirds that feed and nest nearby. If I do know about a nest with babies that are about to fledge, I will confine the cats a day or so until the youngsters make safe haven.
I don't keep a bird feeder. As you said, it's not natural and seemed like setting a banquet for my lazy cats. There's plenty for the birds to eat out there without me luring them into danger.
Thanks Deb!
My 20 year old kitty and her son both died last year. One of kitty's last acts was to leap eight feet in the air and snap the head off my house birdy. It was his first time escaping the cage.
Maybe I'll borrow the neighbours yappy dog and let him mark some territory.
My friend went outside the other day and was shocked to see a black bear precariously pearched on her bird feeder. I haven't seen many birds on mine but have seen squirrels, a rat and a raccoon.
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