My Freind the Crow

I have always had a family of crows living close by. When we moved into this house they made themselves known. They rummaged through the garden and hopped around the yard. They were also able to say "hello". they would sit in the big maple and say hello endlessly. This continued throughout the years as new generations of family members took over.

This year the breeding pair had two chicks. I think they were nesting in the spruce a couple of doors away but when the chicks fledged, they chose my yard to hang out in. When crow chicks fledge, they stay on the ground for up to two weeks before taking to the skies. The two fledglings were in my front yard to start. They hopped around the yard as the parents sat in the tree above keeping them safe. 

The first thing I noticed is that one of the crows was mute, while the other had a soft scratchy voice. Not the voices they should have. As the days went by, the young one with the voice flew and spent most of their days in the trees and then started flying with its parents. The mute crow stayed on the ground mostly. It made its way to my back yard where it was much safer. 

I had a bag of cat food left over from Harvey and I fed the young crow regularly to make sure it devoled. The sibling and parents would come down and they would feed together. The young ones would flap their wings and insist that the parents fed them. Slowly, the flying sibling would feed itself while the mute one would want to be feed. I left a large dag bowl of water by the food as well. The summer was hot and there is not much standing water in the area. The crows and doves and magpies would all come and drink. The grounded crow would sit on the rim of the bowl and play in the water. It would bathe itself and splash around. At night it would retreat to a back corner of my yard and settle down in the grass to sleep. Sometimes it would go up by my shed and find a closed in corner to hide in. 

It was wary of my but weemed to know I meant it no harm. The days dragged on and it flew a few times but always came back to my yard. I began to worry that it would not ever leave. It started to come to my back door and look at itself in the reflection of my sliding door. When I came out it would hop back to the water dish. His safe spot. 

I was dog sitting Monte for a few nights and worried would Monte's presence would do to the crow. Best case would be that it would fly away sensing some sort of danger. But, Monte, being the boy he is was more afraid of the crow that it was of him. Monte would go out to pee at night in the dark and end up right next to the crow and they seemed to scare each other and went different directions. 

This was the time of the August full sturgeon moon. The yard was bright, bathed in moonlight. I got ChatGPT to make an image of Monte with his crow under the moon. 

One day the crow was by the back sliding door. He didn't move when I approached the door or when I opened it to go outside. I bent down and petted him and he just stood there. It was hot and he had his beak open and was breathing heavily so I lifted him and took him up to his waterb bowl. I left him and went back inside so I wouldn't over-stress him. I sat in my office and looked out and he was laying on his side but the bowl. I went back out and he had passed. This struck me hard. 

I buried him in the back corner of the yard where he had spent his nights. Buried him in the soft warm soil and covered his grave with flowers from my garden. His death hit me hard. He had become part of my life and was something I looked forward to seeing and worried about daily. 

I re-landscaped that corner of the garden with rocks as a tribute to him. I mounted solar lights so that he will never be in the dark. When I mounted the lights it all hit me. I understood why this affected me so much. He had passed on my brother James' birthday. James who only lived 2 days. And, that is why I always imaged he was a boy crow, and the sibling that flew was his sister. The family of crows represented my family before I arrived. 

The crows still come by every day looking for food. They are wary of me but grateful for the food. The sister has become fully mute, but she seems to be healthy. 

As a tribute to the crow that passed, I had the image at the top of this page tattooed on my arm so that he will never be forgotten. He will be with me forever! He was impotrant to me and his short life mattered.