Crows

We live in a tourist area named “The City of the Gold Coast”, which is about 1000km north of Sydney along the Pacific shore, in the state of QLD.Like most Australians, we have a private home with a garden around it.

Prior to development the area was a ‘fill’ area, for unwanted building materials and other wastes, which made it an ideal home for crows.

Although urbanized for years already, the crows are still here and we still wake up each morning to the sad sound of their good morning greetings.

Our crows are black as black can be, and fairly large; more like ravens I suppose. In contrast to European crows, they don’t jump, but walk, and they love eating fruit.

We have some passionfruit vines on the side fence, in an area that is separated from the back lawn by a corrugated metal fence. From time to time, empty passionfruit shells appear on that lawn with only a single piercing on them.

For months we wondered how come they are there, and who is the culprit. We thought, may be it’s the large fruit bats we have who eat the lycee off our tree; so we hung some old CDs on the vines to twinkle in the night with the street lights to keep them away; but with no results. The empty shells continued to turn up on the back lawn!

One day we caught them. The crows, I mean. Here they were, sneaking very very quietly, picking the fruit off the vine, and taking it to the back lawn, poking them with their beaks, and sucking the juicy fruit out!

What are we to do? We had no idea, so we succumbed. We decided that nature is getting its way, and all we have to do is to be quicker than the crows in getting the fruit onto our dining table.

In Israel, we are staying in an area, which is also a tourist area. Here, along the Mediterranean Sea, they have the most beautiful promenade you can imagine.

And here, the local crows make sure to spoil the promenade with their most unhygienic eating habits.

Every morning, when we are out for our morning walk, we see them emptying the cover-less rubbish bins from all their previous night leftovers, feasting to their heart content and leaving an unbelievable mess around.

These crows are very different in looks and in behaviour. They are not just black. Their wing, tail and head are black but their body is faun to light brown. Some of them have also a black bib in the front.

They also do not just walk or just hop.They do both; walking and hoping. They walk when they have time to enjoy their surrounds, hop when they are in a hurry, and before a flight lift off.You can see them walk, then, start hoping, then, comes the lift off.

Crows have, for some reason, got an eerie attitude developed towards them throughout the ages. I think it is because of their sad crying type of voice. However, when you bother to look at them and observe them, they are a very beautiful bird with a deep and rich colour and a lovely shape.

Renate

Artist, poet & the Author of

From the Promised Land to the Lucky Country

http://www.promisedland-renate.com/