Friends with Crows

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Chaos-Shaman
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Friends with Crows

Post by Chaos-Shaman »

It's been little more than a few years that I have been paying attention to the crows. They've been visiting me every day. Today to my surprise I was given a gift. My friend Stubs brought me a ball of twigs and sticks and placed it in the center of my lawn. I was thrilled that Stubs had done that for me, it touched my heart. His name is Stubs because during the great ice storm when the ice was a half inch thick and lasted from Dec 23rd to Jan12 that Stubs had lost a foot, just a stub left. Every day he came to me and I fed him left overs, the murder came back and began to feed them peanuts, hot dogs, corn and a few times bought a ham for them to feast on even though it was rock solid they could still peck bits of meat from it. During the course of this time that I began to play with their language, sophisticated, more than anyone would even think possible. A wide range of low notes that most people can't hear unless they get close enough to them. One day Stubs stayed on the fence, ALL DAY and talked to me in these low notes. Being not afraid to try to talk back I attempted to duplicate the language he was using, Immediately he recognized that I was trying to say something back. For hours he stayed there only because my neighbor who has a dog was away that he remained all by himself. The murder is his family which has now expanded into two families but they all come together every once in a while. My heart is so enlightened that nature in all its beauty can communicate. Crows usually keep a great distance from humans, being hated by farmers and religious nuts thinking they are evil.

Has anyone else had nature come to them? I'd love to hear the story if you wouldn't mind sharing.
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Re: Friends with Crows

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My wife often eats breakfast on our deck. A chipmunk ("Chipper") has
learned to beg for peanuts and takes them from her hand.
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Re: Friends with Crows

Post by Jan »

It's so nice to hear. I also love all animals and try to "make friends" with them as much as possible.

Crows are incredibly intelligent - in fact, some say that they are one of the most intelligent animals, fairly close to some of the apes.
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Re: Friends with Crows

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Paul Stevens wrote:My wife often eats breakfast on our deck. A chipmunk ("Chipper") has
learned to beg for peanuts and takes them from her hand.
They are so much fun.

The chippers are a fantastic bunch. They climb all my wife and I for peanuts, we can pet then gently with our fingers, rub their bellies. They are clever bandits, if the door is open they sneak into the house and rob the bags of peanuts, sunflower seeds and corn. I was sitting at my computer and a sneaky chipper came out from behind the mess of boxes, he wasn't afraid. When chippers sense danger they let out this annoying repetitive high pitch squeak. Usually it's a cat and sometimes a hawk. Chippers and Crows don't fear each other. They fight for peanuts but they stand their ground with each other. The grandchildren love them. Squirrels are much the same but they don't climb on us, but they have learned how to knock on the window for attention to get food, yeah, a friend came over and we're talking in the kitchen when she knocked at the door and he looked up at me and said, did you see the squirrel knock on the door, I chuckled and told him about how she was very tame for a squirrel. He couldn't believe his eyes.

They are great for children.
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Re: Friends with Crows

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Jan wrote:It's so nice to hear. I also love all animals and try to "make friends" with them as much as possible.

Crows are incredibly intelligent - in fact, some say that they are one of the most intelligent animals, fairly close to some of the apes.
Indeed they are, and are considered to be one of the smartest of them all, all cormorants are intelligent, especially the raven. It is beautiful to watch how crows work together, one or two are on the watch as the others eat. When a predator comes around there is a lot of commotion and they caw very loud to let all the animals know, it's quite the spectacle. I've watched crows take on a hawk by attacking together from different angles, the hawk could easily kill them but be damned if they'd stop. The baby crow which is the same size as an adult was side by side with the hawk, baby crow didn't know better but the adults did. Crows live in permanent families, take care of each other for life. They are a fantastic bird and not the villains that they are made out to be. I love them.
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Re: Friends with Crows

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I think you mean corvids, not cormorants - the cormorant is a species of seabird ;). But yeah, crows are super-clever. I saw linked once, a little while back, a thing about a girl who'd been feeding crows somewhere and they'd been bringing her back little presents - there was a photo of an assortment of beads, coloured stones, and various other bits and bobs they'd given her :D.
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Re: Friends with Crows

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Yes, I meant corvids. I saw the little girl one, and then later read a story that their neighbors were upset about it. Apparently she was filling troughs with food bringing in not only the crow, but pigeons and gulls which do crap a lot. Living close to neighbors is tough when trying to feed the animals, I put a small amount of bird feed down and wait for the crows to ask for food, not only do they ask, so do the blue jays. The squirrels knock and jump at the window no matter where I sit in the house on the main floor. The doves wait silently.

This story will resonate with me forever.... before my father passed, I asked him to send me a message when he got to the other side. A couple months later I told my wife I wanted a starling as a friend, while away at mothers house a starling had hung around the front of the house, it was hungry and had no idea how to hunt. He\She could fly perfectly. It tried to land on my sons head, tried to fly into the house. Both my daughter and son were afraid of it, they got their phones out and recorded it trying to break into the house through the screen. When I got home they told me of the story and of course I didn't believe them at first until they showed me the video they captured. I was amazed at how determined this starling was. It was not afraid. So two days pass and while working in the garden the starling lands on my shoulder. For one second I was petrified, and he wasn't flying away, dropped the shovel and walked to the backdoor, called over my wife and fed him some bread. Had to shove it down his throat, he really had no clue. So for almost 2 weeks this bird was coming to me every morning, landing on the window ledge and waking me up to feed him. I'd go outside and put my hand in the air and he'd land on it. Then we'd sit on the grass and turn over leaves and find ants, slugs and spiders for him to eat. This bird was thinking I was its parent. I'd take him out front to the tree where there are plenty of ants going up and down it. Neighbors were driving by watching me with work with him and teaching him how to forage for food. I felt that my father had given me the message, that he had found a way to show me his presence. So I asked for a message, I asked for a starling friend and he showed up. Now here is a the strange part about this story is, my dad read the newspaper all the time but never read story books, but he did read one, only one according to mother. The book was called Arnie the Darling Starling. I could not believe it, but my ma insisted that it was the only book he'd ever read outside the newspaper. This story has really touched me, for me it just shows there is more going on than what we see. During the time to type this out I had the crows come by, feed them wieners, jays came by and fed them some peanuts, both asked to be fed, love life and love nature. It's awesome
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Re: Friends with Crows

Post by Wizard Zedd »

Very nice stories here...I love it when the birds and animals come by. I find the fact that the crows will bring presents as with the little girl and with you Chaos just simply fascinating. We see a lot of birds, squirrels, chipmunks and rabbits here. The odd raccoon as well - which are pretty smart as well. Actually saw this video the other day that was really cute...check it out:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bl-QY84hojs
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Re: Friends with Crows

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Love it Zedd, it certainly shows that animals are intelligent and can be friendly, not sure about having a raccoon around, they've got sharp teeth and claws. She seems like a nice coon. I like the following video as well, a dog, cat and a coon together.
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Re: Friends with Crows

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Hmmm...looks like you forgot the video :wink:
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Re: Friends with Crows

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Re: Friends with Crows

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Interesting. Here is one about elephants mourning:

http://www.beliefnet.com/Inspiration/Ho ... r.aspx?p=1
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Re: Friends with Crows

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I don't have time now to read the article but it's known that elephants are highly intelligent and sensitive animals. They have excellent memory and their habits are curiously close to ours in some instances - when an elephant dies, others can mourn him, cry, even "bury" him under a pile of branches etc. Incredible animals.
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Re: Friends with Crows

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I saw a TV programme a while ago about a guy in Africa somewhere who was in charge of a group that rescued orphaned baby elephants who'd been traumatised by having their whole herds murdered around them and so had a strong dislike/fear of humans. thse elephants lived in a large enclosure together and the older ones helped take care of the younger ones by looking out for them, keeping them company, etc. There was one in particular who was very aggressive to humans (fine with the other elephants) but the guy came and stood calmly by the fence of the enclosure every day and eventually, one day, she put her trunk through in a kind of "handshake" to show she finally trusted him. I think she became (or already was) leader of the herd and the area was a big nature reserve thingy so they could roam freely and stuff when they were more grown up. So they could be a "proper" herd but without the threat of poachers showing up.
One day, the guy died (old age) and the relatives (wife or daughter or something) looked out of the window of their house and just saw all the elephants just standing there in silence when they'd never done that before. And every year on the same day (anniversary of the guy's death) they would come back and stand there in silence for a while, then go off and carry on with their lives.
Yeah, clever buggers, elephants :).
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Re: Friends with Crows

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Great story Wizard Zedd. We humans rarely give enough respect to animals, ALL animals and plants. Sure we eat them that's normal, but do we give them respect to their intelligence, not so much. There are so many people out there that hate nature, it's unbelievable! To think we're the only sentient beings is utterly BS. When eating flesh all we need to do is say thank you. The same goes with plants, they too have spirit and are likely the ones who taught man, not some alien, but a simple plant and its spiritual properties, like the mushroom for example which many people believe were the catalysts to creativity, language and art. There are plenty of books to read up on this, shamanism speaks of this often.
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Re: Friends with Crows

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Chaos-Shaman wrote:There are so many people out there that hate nature, it's unbelievable!
People do destroy nature but usually not because they would hate her. Some people do it because of ignorance, some because of money, some people see nature as a source for their free use, some might even see nature as their enemy that has to be "civilised" or "colonised" or "mastered" or even "defeated" but people really very rarely hate nature. Personally, I know many people who destroy nature but I can't think of anyone hating her.
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Re: Friends with Crows

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Movies have that comment or phrase quite often, in my life I have met plenty of people who do not like nature, even though they are nature as well. For some reason people teach their children they are different. The responses sometimes are strange, when children are told they are an animal very often they say they are not, they have taken themselves out of nature and placed themselves separate from it. Been studying this for years now. Even adults will come across the same. The human pedestal so to speak. This separation is abundant within the minds of humans. Does love exist beyond humans? can a crow fall in love? Is love nurturing or are they separate? It's one of those things that is difficult to grasp. The reason I mention love is because of the word hate. Do crows hate? This conversation can be interesting if willing to open up about it. Is this all a play on language?
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Re: Friends with Crows

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True.

And, yes, it's also a question of definition of "nature" and "hate".

Of course, the question of humans being a part of nature or outside of it is very significant here... it's related to many things including relegion, spirituality and beliefs; with some relegions placing humans outside or above nature while others understanding humans as a part of her... it's quite an interesting topic, I wish I had more time to write something on it right now, hope to get back to it later...

Again, we shouldn't over-generalise - "people teach their children they are different" is not correct because many people don't do that, but I agree that a prevailing Western / modern view probably is as you say, although I wouldn't be that pesimistic, just look at the "post-materialistic" culture spreading through the countries of north-western Europe (Sweden, Denmark etc.).
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Re: Friends with Crows

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Spirit is something that can not be easily placed, is it nature? Is it possible we're using language to try and describe something that makes us different from nature? Is it possible that mathematics is close to nature, and language close to spirit? Nature works within math only so far, then here comes spirit which can't be mathematically defined, which will then come down to choice. All animals make choices from natural selection. The question I'm asking is do the crows know I love them, dream of them and wish them well. Do the crows know I respect them? Language is the magic, the spirit can be found within language meaning, so do the crows know in their own language the same principle. There is a lot that needs to be explored in this area.
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Re: Friends with Crows

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Chaos-Shaman wrote: do the crows know
Does my oak tree know that winter is coming when it drops its leaves?
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Re: Friends with Crows

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Paul Stevens wrote:
Chaos-Shaman wrote: do the crows know
Does my oak tree know that winter is coming when it drops its leaves?
I think you're asking if there is a cycle, seasonal, this places itself within math. Does the oak tree know is quite a question.
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Re: Friends with Crows

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this places itself within math
I believe the oak tree, like the crow, depends on chemistry
for its knowledge, not math. Also as do you and I.
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Re: Friends with Crows

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Paul Stevens wrote:
Chaos-Shaman wrote: do the crows know
Does my oak tree know that winter is coming when it drops its leaves?
He knows. But the question is whether he knows that he knows - and that's something that we don't know for certain yet (although most of us think that he doesn't know that he knows and that it's all "just" chemistry). :wink:
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Re: Friends with Crows

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Jan wrote:But the question is whether he knows that he knows
Oh, dear! That is a tough one. Perhaps we should consider
creatures we better understand. When did you first know that
you knew something? Approximately. Not at conception
certainly. So there must have been a first time. At least
for most of us.

Please let us not continue this descent into "Does the
crow know that he knows that he knows".
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Re: Friends with Crows

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lol, continue
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Re: Friends with Crows

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I confess I was only partly serious, and partly in one of my "Bernard Wooley moods". :wink: On the more serious note, I was again pointing to the definition of the word "know", i.e. whether it's conscious or not. Anyway, I agree that this is nitpicking and we shall move on.
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Re: Friends with Crows

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Lol... That was becoming rather Wolleyesque! It's turtles all the way down.
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Re: Friends with Crows

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Do the crows know I love them, and even more important, do they love me? Is love language or spirit? My daughter went for a walk with her baby and she came back and told me how the crows did not fear her as she walked through the park. Crows do not trust people, they must know that many ignorant humans hate them, again, is hate language or spirit? Human pedestal arrogance is rampant everywhere. One swift kick and it collapses onto itself. I think it needs a good kick.
It's nice to see a sense of humor Jan, again is humor just language or is it spirit? Hope you are in good spirits today.
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Re: Friends with Crows

Post by Chaos-Shaman »

https://youtu.be/AVaITA7eBZE How smart can crows be?

Crows do have a logical sense.
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Re: Friends with Crows

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Incredible! And she really thinks about it, she does it purposefully! :D
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