Worthy Caws: A year of healing and communing with crows
An excerpt from the book:
Many people have reached out to me and asked to join me on my crow walks. Maybe they’ve seen my social media posts and crow pictures, or I’ve talked about my crows with them. It is so fun when I get to bring a friend.
The first few times, the crows were a bit shy with a second person. But then they became more comfortable with the possibility of guests, and now seem to trust the other person right away even if it’s that particular friend’s first time walking with me.
I love the solitude of my walks, but I also love sharing my love and connections to crows with my friends. I even brought a puppy with me once, a foster dog I was taking care of from the nearby Homeward Pet Adoption Center. The pup did great; she was intrigued by the crows, fascinated even, but didn’t seem scared. She tried to eat some of the cat food the first couple times I tossed it down, but then seemed to understand, just like Vinnie, when I said that was the crows’ snacks. I distracted her with some dog treats, which helped.
One day, I brought a close friend with me. It was freezing outside, 12 degrees, rare for the Seattle area that rarely drops below 30 degrees even at the height of Winter. I asked her if she wanted to join me anyway.
“Do you go out in all weather?” she asked.
“Yes, unless it’s a total downpour. But today is sunny, just freezing. And besides, someone has to feed them.”
She laughed at the ridiculousness of this statement.
“Actually, they don’t…” she reasoned. “Crows eat stuff out of the dumpster, the fields, parking lots…”
We laughed. Even though I know crows have survived for thousands of years without me, I feel so invested now. I want to make sure they are okay. Especially in those colder months, when the ground was frozen and people weren’t having picnics or eating outside and inadvertently leaving little leftovers for them.
Despite the freezing weather, she agreed to join me. I wasn’t sure what to expect, as this was her second walk with me, and we barely saw any crows on our first walk together.
“They usually don’t come around when I have a second person with me, so I’m not sure if we will see any,” I warned her ahead of time.
Sometimes I worry people will be disappointed when they join me on a crow walk and we don’t see any crows, because they’ve seen so many pictures I’ve taken and posted on social media. They see these amazing, wild photos of crows flying straight at me and getting really close to me. I don’t want to let them down.
But I shouldn’t have been worried. The crows flew close by, did some tricks and spins, and generally didn’t seem to be scared at all around her. She is also great with animals, and I should have known they would have been happy to see her too.
My sister-in-law also joined me on a walk. I gave her the same warning as I gave my friend, but again, no issues. As I hypothesized above, maybe once the crows realized I sometimes bring friends with me, they trust everyone I bring.
One day, a friend met me in the parking lot where I usually start and end my walks. She wasn’t joining me, but I was giving her something for her dog, and the parking lot is a great central meeting point. I pulled in next to her car and we both got out of our vehicles. As we started to talk, I heard a loud sound behind me.
“CAW! CAW!”
I started laughing before I even turned around, and saw one of my crow friends standing on the gravel just a few feet behind me. I imagined him saying, “I see you’ve arrived. Where are the snacks?”
“Wow!” my friend said. “Do they always get so close to you?”
“Yeah… he probably recognized my car and flew over,” I replied.
And then I addressed the crow.
“Just a second. I’ll be right with you.”
And because for the most part the crows are polite with me, he waited patiently. I finished my conversation and then threw him a snack. When I started my walk a few seconds later, there was a line of crows on the railing, waiting for me.
It’s so endearing when they wait for me. Or when they meet me at my car before my walk, wanting to get a head start on a snack. I toss them a few treats before I start my trek, and they follow me sometimes to grab a few more.