A Crow Synchronization

It seems almost always in late June or early July the roads are scattered with dead birds--fledgling crows to be exact. Fifty percent of them won't make it to see their first birthday and these only lived for three months. I think of all the labor the parents put in--tragic. While driving into work I was counting the dead crows and decided to do a Facebook post on it.

What I left out in the above post was all the math the young crows have to learn. Once they have figured out not all objects on the ground are stationary they then calculate speed of the object coming at them and the point of which it will hit them. This is how they are able to feast on a dead squirrel in the road and at the last second fly up before the car hits them. It doesn't matter if you're traveling 55mph or 200mph. They've done the math. They'd make any college math professor look stupid. On any near miss that they didn't want to be so close they re-crunch their numbers replace the old and never forget.

The next morning I'm walking into work and I see a crow feather on the ground. I pick it up and put it into my back pack.



Later that day I spot a dead crow on the ground. Dammit. I decide to take a picture and post it to illustrate my initial post. I'm seeing the synchronization now. A choreographed pattern. An interactive play with the universe. When will it stop?



Later that day, I'm at a Park an Ride. There's a five story parking garage. When I'm here I like to walk the stairs. I go up one flight to the open top on the fifth floor walk over to the next corner and down, then over to the next corner then up and continue the circle. I reach the open top and am walking to the other corner when I notice five crows engaged with a hawk. The hawk is in full defensive mode and trying to escape the attacking crows. I stop and watch until they all fly out of site. Back down the stairs and then back to the open top again and as I'm heading back down a crow swoops in stopping me and lands two feet away on the rail. Too close. Crows won't just randomly land that close. I'm really thinking synchro now. I stare at the crow and greet it. I remain quiet and just observe the crow and then I recognize him. He's Cyrus. He's my crow that I feed. I know his beak. He's biten me twice mistaken my finger for a peanut. He's the only crow that has ever taken a peanut out of my hand. Where he and I usually interact is six miles away. What a strange coincidence running into him here. He must have been one of the five crows with the hawk and seen me and decided to come say hi. I haven't seen him in a month because my schedule no longer takes me to his location.



This truly is a crow synchronization. Cyrus now knows he can at least look for me here whenever he flies over. The video below is with Cyrus and his mate Zino.