How to make friends with Crows

[sufi]

https://owlcation.com/stem/How-to-Make-Friends-with-Crows
Lots of good tales and tips in the comments

 

[jenks]

This is a great book on crows:
http://www.markcocker.com/crow-country/4577039857
On a Wednesday in the summer moths I timetrial in the countryside out on the Dengie and our starting point is next to a crow community and I psyche myself up they all start pouring home cawing away and making a great racket - it's fantastic. And I always think of John Clare's poem 'I Love to Hear the Evening Crows go by'
I love to hear the evening crows go by,
And see the starnels darken down the sky.
The bleaching stack the bustiling sparrow leaves
And plops with merry note beneath the eaves.
The odd and lated pigeon bounce by
As if a wary watching hawk was nigh,
While far and fearing nothing, high and slow,
The stranger birds to distant places go,
While short of flight the evening robin comes
To watch the maiden sweeping out the crumbs
Nor fears the idle shout of passing boy
But pecks about the door and sings for joy;
Then in the hovel where the cows are fed
FInds till the morning comes a pleasant bed.

 

[baboon2004]

Loved this article, thanks.

The roosts are amazing, apocalyptic:

I thought only bats did that kind of thing.
Apparently in the UK you'd need to go to the Norfolk fens in winter to get the best opportunity to see this :/

 

[Lena01]

The best thing you can do is put out peanuts consistently and don't look directly at the birds when you do so (at least initially). Be conspicuous about you being the one to drop the food, but do not throw the food toward the crows or look at them initially, but do make sure they are in the area. Then, go back inside.

 

[sufi]

https://phys.org/news/2018-03-raven-food-disclose-age-sex.html
a/s/l

 

[Woebot]

i think crows must be among my favourite creatures

a couple of years back i found a crow with a broken wing under a bush

with great difficulty i gently caught him and stowed him in my jacket and cycled home with him

as we were cycling together he spoke to me. he said "crow". "i am a crow" - i kid you not - the guy was so frightened

when we got home i found a big plastic box and popped it in him then took him straight to the vet

the bastards put him down right the moment we left. found later that they're not an ethical practice

 

[martin]

i found a big plastic box and popped it in him

Think this might have been the moment of expiration, tbh.

 

[Woebot]

Think this might have been the moment of expiration, tbh.

it WAS clear plastic! i didn't have a small room to lock him in! he was fine when we got to the vet, honest... they were just like, oh no not another idiot with a wounded bird, has he gone yet? ok wring its neck..

 

[droid]

But how did you pop it in? Did you shove it down the gullet or slice him open and insert it into the breast?

 

[sufi]

useful factoids http://www.birds.cornell.edu/crows/crowfaq.htm

 

[sufi]

useful factoids http://www.birds.cornell.edu/crows/crowfaq.htm

for example:

I have had several opportunities to sample the flesh of crows (I will not go into detail about how this came about, but remember this is a legally hunted species). In my opinion, crow tastes just fine. It is similar to wild duck or any other wild bird with very dark meat. Crows have no white meat on them, as is true for most birds. (Whenever someone says something "tastes like chicken" remember that they're talking about the DARK meat of chicken, not the white.) The meat of most wild birds is even darker than the dark meat of chicken, and will have a gamy smell and flavor to a varying extent.

 

[mistersloane]

In Brixton, in the squat days, all of us were crow people, we’d send messages via them, my mate had a pet one. Not send messages like passenger pigeon but if you saw a crow you’d be like “Oi, tell Lee to pop round” and later that day, Lee would pop round. Crows are like the psychic internet.

 

[martin]

for example:

So you've gone from befriending them to eating them in just under two years.

Sufi - last seen persuading some nervous pigs to open the front door.

 

[luka]

me and edmund were working the other day when we heard a man imitating a crow caw
and he walked to the river wall and a crow came down and he started feeding it monkey nuts

 

[luka]

what remains in question is whether he's trained the crow with food or whether the call actually communicates with the crow in some way. i reckon hes just conditioned it with food personally and the call just means food man is here.

 

[Mr. Tea]

me and edmund were working the other day when we heard a man imitating a crow caw
and he walked to the river wall and a crow came down and he started feeding it monkey nuts

Is he called Jeremy Corvid?

 

[Clinamenic]

Finally a useful thread.

 

[Mr. Tea]

Finally a useful thread.

High praise from the SNOAT himself!

 

[sufi]

In January 2014, a hooded crow and a yellow-legged gull each attacked one of two peace doves which Pope Francis had allowed children to release in Vatican City.[34]