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Over Christmas we went to Virginia to visit our son's family. One morning I stepped outside and heard a bird making an awful racket in a large pine tree. I waited and soon a crow flew out of the tree. Crows are very vocal and can make many different sounds.
James Russell Lowell wrote about the crow, "Yet there are few things more melodious than his caw on a clear morning as it drops to you filtered through five hundred fathoms of crisp, blue air."
The crow is a remarkable bird, and some even say that it is our smartest bird. Even though humans have always considered the crow an enemy and have killed them indiscriminately, the crow has thrived on our activities.
Most farmers have no love for crows because of their destructive way of pulling up seed corn after sprouting. Crows help farmers by eating large numbers of June bugs, grasshoppers, grubs and other troublesome insects. In fact, a crow will eat almost anything, including carrion. It is estimated during one growing season, crows will eat 19 bushels of insects on an average farm.
Crows have the bad habit of raiding other birds' nests and eating the eggs. At times, crows even steal the young birds from their nests.
If you have ever been in the woods when the sun is rising, you know that the crow is one of the first birds heard as the forest wakes up. It isn't necessary to go out into the country or woods to see and hear the crows because they are just as much at home in our cities as in rural areas.
Other than humans and the great-horned owl, a crow does not have many enemies. If, during the daylight hours, a band of crows find an owl sleeping, they attack the owl with such vigor that eventually the owl is forced from its perch. The crows will chase and harass the poor owl for hours on end.
These incidents rarely end in death for either, but on rare occasions, a crow will get too close to the owl's sharp talons and end up as a meal. At night, the owl gets its chance to even the score. Owls have been known to take adult crows off the roost and also the young from the nest.
I have also read in the Game News Field Notes where a band of crows had successfully killed an owl by piercing its skull with their sharp beaks.
A crow's beak is used as a hammer, probe, hook and dagger, all of which are very impressive weapons. The bill, which is designed with a system of hinges and levers, enables the crow to open its beak widely, allowing it to swallow large items with ease.
Crows are survivors.
Almost everyone has seen a crow eating from a road-killed animal. The crow's timing is so precise that it leaves the dead carcass just before a vehicle arrives. The crow will fly in a small circle as the car passes and then land again on the dead animal. Even on our highways, where vehicles are traveling at 65 mph and faster, the crow can avoid being struck.
Even so, crows can still get into trouble. Several years ago, Nancy Potter of Wyalusing, sent me a photograph of a crow with its head caught between a branch and the trunk of a tree. The crow's head was wedged so tightly that the crow ended up hanging itself.
In looking at the picture, one can only wonder how this poor crow, possessing great intelligence and agility, got itself into such a predicament.
The following are a few of the many sayings that are associated with the crow:
As the crow flies" means the shortest distance between two places; "To eat crow" is to be forced to do something extremely distasteful; a crow's nest is a platform on the main mast of a sailing ship (a place where a person has a good view) and of course, many folk are worried about getting "crow's feet," which are nothing more than wrinkles spreading out from the corners of the eyes.
All carpenters have an iron crowbar in their toolbox. The name refers to the ends of the tool. One end is said to represent the bird's beak, and the other end, which is shaped into a two-pronged fork, appears as a bird's foot.
Our common crow, which is both loved and hated, is probably one of the best-known birds in America. Amazingly, little study on the crow has been done by researchers. We have experienced a drop in the crow population, which is due to the West Nile Virus.
In a spell of dry weather, when the birds could find very little to drink, a thirsty crow found a pitcher with a little water in it. But the pitcher was high and had a narrow neck, and no matter how he tried, the crow could not reach the water. The poor thing felt as if he must die of thirst.
Then an idea came to him. Picking up some small pebbles, he dropped them into the pitcher one by one. With each pebble, the water rose a little higher until at last it was near enough so he could drink."
The moral to this Aesop Fable is: "In a pinch, a good use of our wits may help us out."
Bill Bower is a retired Pennsylvania Game Commission Wildlife Officer. Read his blog and listen to his podcasts on the outdoors at www.onemaningreen.com.