Crows are a great source of pleasure to me. I admire their bold, graphic good looks: wiry legs and strong beak, shining eyes, and smooth feathers accented with iridescent shine. I enjoy listening to their noisy announcements and conversations, knowing that whether one is broadcasting his name in braggadocio or informing the rest of the neighborhood of what she’s discovered, there is often more brainy expression and interaction going than in many a text-messaging flurry from a pack of attention-deficient humans.
Crows can be aggressive and mean-spirited like humans, too, as I well know from working many years on a heavily treed campus where nesting season was Open Season on certain passersby whom the crows chose to bully. But for the most part, when they’re not busy trying to defend their territory they devote a goodly amount of time and energy to exploring and problem-solving and even humorous play, that is also surprisingly easy to see through an anthropomorphic lens. If I see a crow taking a particular interest in anything, chances are pretty good that I’ll find it interesting myself, should I follow its lead.
Shore Enough
I am too smart for you by half; you think you’re bright? Don’t make me laugh!
You think me infantile and boisterous, but cannot crack an oyster
With no knife? Ha! Silly chums: no fingers, no opposing thumbs,
And yet, I’ve dined on oysters thrice before you’ve opened one. How nice
That you consider yourselves wise to have your thoughts and synthesize
Them into action, yet still fail to see that mine makes yours seem pale,
When you consider that you’ve got advantages that I have not,
And still I’m able, while you strive and strain to merely keep alive,
To caw this jeering little poem at you from this, my beachfront home.
Art-Colored Glasses 
Something else we have in common….a love of crows:)xx
As long as they promise to play nicely with the hummingbirds, eh! 😉
xoxo
I’m fond of crows as well. They always sound like they’re having a raucous party and serve as great alarm systems when the neighbor’s cat decides to hang about our bird feeders.
What’s not to love about a raucous party with a bunch of crows! May your weekend be a party, but only of the sort *you* choose!!
Like you, I’m fascinated by them, Kathryn. Researchers believe them to be among the smartest of animals and they do play. There’s a Russian video on YouTube of a crow “snowboarding” down a roof top, repeatedly. Can pasta making be next? Perish the thought!
I’ve seen that snowboarder, too. Delightful. Also, far more talented at it than I would ever be…of course, knowing that you can fly off if you fall makes it a little less intimidating to surf toward the abyss, I suppose. 😉
A pasta-making crow: now THAT would be worth seeing!!!
Crows are really interesting birds and supposedly very intelligent as well. No wonder we humans are fascinated by them. Love the dialogue.
I look forward to living among crows again (they’re scarce here in north Texas, unlike back home in Seattle), even though they can probably outsmart me at every turn! 🙂
I have a long history of loving and hating crows, having spent many years living where they are abundant. Smart, raucous, thieving, humorous, and a little spooky; they are not a shy and retiring sort of bird. Your post does them a great justice!
Indeed, I think they’re pretty much the exact opposite of shy and retiring! 😉 Your descriptive list is perfect. 😀
xo
Dear Kathryn,
I love this very much! Also I admire and observe them daily. They’ll pose for me, alone or sometimes as a couple. We have an understanding I believe, they never fly away from my camera, I stop taking pictures not to disturb them any longer. I love crows!!! A wonderful blog 🙂
I think crows are one of the birds clever enough to recognize and understand affinity, when one is patient and gentle as you are, my sweet. They are lucky to have a gracious companion in you, and you in them!!
❤
K
When we lived in Tokyo, the crows were a good reminder of which days were trash days. They knew our schedule by heart.
They know altogether more about us than is good for us, I think! 😉
xo