A Murder of Crows Greeted Sassy and Me

The Crow and the Pebble

A Murder of Crows greeted Sassy and me when we started our morning walk. Murder is the name for a flock of crows, and many animals have similar evocative names, like a Parliament of Owls, a Murmuration of Starlings, an Exaltation of Larks. I obtained that book, An Exaltation of Larks, by James Lipton, read it, and gave it to a bibliophile.

An Eructation of Church Growth Experts?

A Decrepidation of Circuit Pastors?

A Drowsing of Synod President?

A Defenestration of Dissenters?

The crows made a terrible racket because of their numbers. I have seen them quietly swarm at night in enormous numbers, but they were starting to roost in New Ulm. 

Doubtless they wanted some food from our backyard. There is always something. Lately I have placed a fruit and nut birdfood mix on the barrels. That sounds like it would cost like caviar, but the mix was cost-effective in bringing out all the species - Cardinals, Blue Jays, Chickadees, Starlings, and I am sure - Crows.

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Murmuration of Starlings

For the Birds - In the Creation Garden

 Grackles are great at poking their beaks down for grubs in the soil. 

Sassy and I have an agreement. She loves fresh Moist and Meaty food, which is individually packed, and I like cheap birdfood. She wants it fresh each day and not mixed with the older stuff. Just as kids judge ice cream by the color, dogs judge their food by the stink.

So I took a page from Lynda R.'s bird rescue book and put old dogfood out each day, to start fresh for Sassy. She is not subtle. She sits down with one paw on each side of the dish. If she is not in that position, I ask what she wants. She offers me a long, slow, dramatic licking of her chops.

The stale dogfood is now a regular part of the decoration on the two garbage barrels. One is for recycling, the other for typical garbage. The lids are convenient for birds and squirrels, and two separate mealsites.

My most dramatic sight was a bunch of crows (maybe ravens) on the barrels, only a few feet from the kitchen window. They were majestic in size, solid black. I have never seen that branch of the smart, wiley corvid clan so close to me. (They were eating leftover panera bread.) Grackles, yes. Starlings, always. In Midland the crows would leave the ground in the backyard the moment I turned on water in the kitchen.

Needless to say, I was impressed. Likely the cold morning frost made fresh bread seem especially appealing to the crows.

Normally I am seeing squirrels, robins, starlings, cardinals, and snowbirds on the barrels. Starlings own the neighborhood trees, so they are most frequent and fun. One will be eating and his friend will walk over and shoulder him away. So he flies up and lands on the other barrel and stalks some food. They are a riot bathing.

 Starlings really live it up when bathing. I keep two children's pools for all the critters, who add their dust and manure to pour into the back garden.