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Loved this, thanks for linking. When COVID started, I too was desperate for something other than dire news. I went and picked up "Bark Butter Bites", which are

Loved this, thanks for linking. When COVID started, I too was desperate for something other than dire news. I went and picked up "Bark Butter Bites", which are chunks of peanut butter, corn and beef suet enriched with calcium. In short, it is ideal food for a bird. They go nuts for the stuff! I started feeding them to the crows in the neighbourhood, which is surrounded by forests. Well, you know. It's been well over a year now. I walk 3 times a day and I have never left the house without these peanuty treats in my pocket. The crows have formed a parameter around my house and escort me everywhere. They come very close, have shown many, many examples of extreme intelligence, empathy and humour. But what's struck me is just how much social grace they possess. They have a crystal clear understanding of mutually sane boundaries. They know where I live, but will not disturb us in anyway. They show absolute and respectful care around "my nest". One funny story is, after getting used to one of our common walking routes that breaks into a forest trail, the _entire gang_ showed up one day. We think there was a sort of meeting, as normally the locals in this spot around around 5-20. This day, there were 100+. I took too long to notice, though, as I started dishing out food, only to realize... "Hey look! There are... 10... 15... 20... 40 --Fuuu-oh-oh -- Oh _shit_!" -- something like a crow tornado whirled through the street. And it's 7am! And they're loud! We decide to turn back home (running), only to wind up crossing a road near a school -- relatively busy with commuter traffic, even during COVID -- and are followed by no less than 100 crows. The people in the cars and on the street are all staring, mouths agape, as two random people cross by surrounded by a cawing mass of grateful, hungry and black feathery insanity. Back again, as soon as we got very close to home... they went: "Ahhh, okay, well, bye!" and left quietly. I love 'em.

noisy_boy 5y ago
Load testing.
murukesh_s 5y ago
They become very revengeful and aggressive if you have ever disturbed their nest. When I was young I just threw a small stone at one of the nests near my home (for fun not to harm). From then on, for several years, they seem to recognize me everytime I go out of the house and call their gang to swoop on me. I stopped going to my terrace just because of that. After may be 10+ years or so it stopped. Later I was stunned to read that Crows remember your face and can communicate your face to other Crows[1]. Thats how they can detect you for several miles in radius. [1] https://theconversation.com/never-cross-a-crow-it-will-remember-your-face-2121 https://theconversation.com/never-cross-a-crow-it-will-remem...
- kaybe 5y ago
  I really wonder what they think of me shooing them from the nests of smaller birds in the garden. (A futile endeavor, I fear, since I cannot be there all day.) It probably destroys all chances of having a good relationship.. too bad.
- throwanem 5y ago
  I inadvertently encroached on a crows' nest with a young chick in it, one time while I was out taking pictures on a break at work. The chick called out in alarm, and the parents weren't far away. Then and after, whenever I left the building with my camera in hand, they made low passes and warning calls until I went back inside - but only when I had my camera. This kept up for days, including after a weekend when I wasn't at work, until it occurred to me to try a peace offering of potato chips from the vending machine - not the healthiest food for anyone, but the best it had to offer, and I had nothing else really to work with. After a few days of emptying a bag of chips on the grassy verge opposite the parking lot, and of conscientiously not approaching the nest again, the warning calls and surveillance flights ceased, and the crows never had a problem with me again. I'd read previously about corvids' intelligence, but that they should have such an extensive and accurate theory of mind, for animals with whom they have so little in common, still surprised me. Hell, for all that we flatter ourselves we invented the concepts, I've known plenty of humans who grasped impropriety, apology, restitution, and forgiveness less well than those birds did.

noisy_boy 5y ago

Load testing.

murukesh_s 5y ago

They become very revengeful and aggressive if you have ever disturbed their nest. When I was young I just threw a small stone at one of the nests near my home (for fun not to harm). From then on, for several years, they seem to recognize me everytime I go out of the house and call their gang to swoop on me. I stopped going to my terrace just because of that. After may be 10+ years or so it stopped. Later I was stunned to read that Crows remember your face and can communicate your face to other Crows[1]. Thats how they can detect you for several miles in radius. [1] https://theconversation.com/never-cross-a-crow-it-will-remember-your-face-2121 https://theconversation.com/never-cross-a-crow-it-will-remem...

kaybe 5y ago
I really wonder what they think of me shooing them from the nests of smaller birds in the garden. (A futile endeavor, I fear, since I cannot be there all day.) It probably destroys all chances of having a good relationship.. too bad.
throwanem 5y ago
I inadvertently encroached on a crows' nest with a young chick in it, one time while I was out taking pictures on a break at work. The chick called out in alarm, and the parents weren't far away. Then and after, whenever I left the building with my camera in hand, they made low passes and warning calls until I went back inside - but only when I had my camera. This kept up for days, including after a weekend when I wasn't at work, until it occurred to me to try a peace offering of potato chips from the vending machine - not the healthiest food for anyone, but the best it had to offer, and I had nothing else really to work with. After a few days of emptying a bag of chips on the grassy verge opposite the parking lot, and of conscientiously not approaching the nest again, the warning calls and surveillance flights ceased, and the crows never had a problem with me again. I'd read previously about corvids' intelligence, but that they should have such an extensive and accurate theory of mind, for animals with whom they have so little in common, still surprised me. Hell, for all that we flatter ourselves we invented the concepts, I've known plenty of humans who grasped impropriety, apology, restitution, and forgiveness less well than those birds did.