The Way Crows See It

​I may not be my usual self today. There is something I am having to come to grips with. I know sometimes I need to accept the hard truth, and that can be difficult.

I don’t think the crows love me for me alone. I cannot see any of them engaging me in a group hug. I am often nice to them. Greet them in a friendly manner. Enquire as to their well-being.

But alas. Or aguy. Or to be totally non-sexist, aperson. I get the feeling they just love me for what I have. What I give them. If I had nothing to give them, they would probably go elsewhere.

Oh they do all the right things. They hang about. They come to say hello. But it is funny they tend to do that at the came time each day. Unfortunately for me it all seems to be coming together. Arriving at the same time each day is not a co-incidence.

I have had to face the reality that maybe it is what is provided rather than for myself alone.

To have one arrive and sit on a pot plant nearby all regal and friendly looking. And to have their mate arrive and sit next to them looking all innocent like. Preening each other. I think my wide-eyed wonder and compassion is being taken advantage of.

I think it was the looking at the ground in the pot plant that aroused my suspicion. Their peaking at an imaginary morsel as though to say, “there’s nothing here.” Chewing at a branch in a tree that has no insects or anything that can sustain them.

Then they look at me as if to say, “this guy may help.” I reckon to them I am probably “this guy.” I doubt they even know my name is Peter. That I have my own hopes and aspirations. That I have feelings too. That I am ready to share my thoughts.

I appreciate that language may be a barrier. Crow is not my first language. But I reckon if we engaged firstly in non-verbal communication we could get a better understanding. We could get an idea of how each one is feeling.

But no. It seems to be all one way. They arrive with one thing on their minds. That thing is not how I am today but “this guy has given us food in the past so he should be good for it now.”

Unfortunately this has not necessarily been easy for me. It is like a paradigm shift. I have had to accept that our relationship is probably transactional only. The crows have been nice to me, as I have been nice to them.

It won’t stop what I do though. I will continue to be nice. I will probably just need to lower my expectation when it comes to crows.