Saturday, April 4, 2015

A Bird in the Bush is Worth Two in the Hand!

If you spend a bit of time watching wild Jungle Crows play in a forest environment, you will quickly observe their preference for evergreen trees, not of the Christmas tree, pine tree variety, but of the deciduous looking sort of evergreen tree with small, oval, or tear drop shaped leaves on great wavy, arched and twisting branches of impressive reach. You are likely to witness young, rambunctious Crows crashing into the soft, dense canopy of these trees, feet first, wings fanned out, as if they were Eagles crashing into the sea to catch fish, just for fun, or while chasing playmates, or escaping pursuers. Perhaps they do this to catch lizards like the tree gecko, but they also do this just for fun, something which I find rather amazing considering how vulnerable they look, legs dangling, or tightly grasping soft new growth branches, or bunches of leaves, wings totally spread out; it is not exactly easy or quick for them to leap back out again, and take flight; a hawk would find them an easy target. Maybe they think if they hold onto the tree a hawk could never carry them off.

This is why, it is a very good idea, if you happen to need to exercise, entertain, or train a tethered Crow, to find evergreen bushes for them to play upon. And if the bushese happen to have a fence built within them, all the better as Crows seem to love getting from post to post by wading through the soft leaves, and fantasizing that they are on some sort of epic adventure, struggling through quicksand, or lava much like children.

Here is a not so interesting photo of such a bush, with a fence. I will try to post some pictures of Fig more playfully immersed in the foliage with the utter delight of evasion, and naughtiness written all over her face. 

The bushes are somewhat of a hazard as feral cats may lurk within, and the branches can snag on the tethers, so be attentive, and careful. Fig once broke off the very tip of her beak diving out, and finding her tether snagged. It was only an eighth of an inch of her beak, and it evened out the top with the bottom, eliminating her usual slight overbite, giving her the appearance of having pursed "lips" which was rather cute for a few days, but still scared the bejeezus out of me. She does not need more injuries.  


No comments:

Post a Comment