Raising the Young

I have had unusually abundant opportunities to observe mothers and fathers with their young this year. Feeding, preening, and talking to them intimately. Defending them, too. I'll try and write a few observations at a later time.

I had one long chance to observe the intimate communication, and preening of a known mother with her one offspring from a mere 15-20 feet away, for almost ten minutes from below, to one side. It was the perfect spot because the mother was paying attention to the young one to her right, and I was left, and behind her. It was a great chance to learn a lot about how to mother a baby Crow. The chatter is fascinating stuff. The preening, and encouragement is very touching to observe. Unfortunately, when the mother hopped a 180, she saw me observing her, recognized me instantly from the forest, was surprised to see me downtown (a quarter mile away), and immediately swooped down into the tree I was under. She tried to poop on me, growled a bit, tore off and tossed down a couple of small branches from the tree, then reattended to her baby. Had she not know me, she would have just ignored the attentions as that of just another person on the sidewalk; she would not have cared at all as there were dozen of people out on the sidewalk. I suspect she could have easily successfully pooped on me, growled more vociferously, and chucked down much larger branches, but she knows me, and I read her message as very simply and straight forwardly, "Buzz off you bothersome man! How dare you stare at me and my kid." and that seems entirely reasonable, doesn't it? Crows are, in fact, darn reasonable creatures.