A Murder of Crow

A mellow (if cool and soggy) Memorial Day weekend was had here in Ballard...We finally had a respite this afternoon starting about 3pm, after several days of persistent rain and temps that couldn't break 60F. Taking full advantage, we dashed outside, fluffed up our sodden garden beds (having turned under the rye/fava bean covercrop several weeks ago to begin its springtime decomposition) and stuck our poor tomato starts into the ground. Tough love in these parts, we need to get things going!

This morning, however, was not very mellow. Continuing our Mutual of Omaha spring melodrama, we awoke at 6am to the sound of many, many crows cawing and shrieking - looking outside I could see them gathering in the top of the big pine by the shed and in the neighboring trees. The chickens were joining in here and there but not nearly as alarmed as the crows. I watched to see if I could spot the raccoon that most certainly was the source of the cacophony, and spotted him heading straight up the trunk - but he disappeared into the canopy where my view of him was obscured.

Climbed back into bed, thoroughly awake, and listened for another 20 minutes or so before getting up again and walking out to make sure there weren't any others lurking around. I found a spot on the patio where I could see the raccoon high up in the pine, and he seemed to be eating something in the crook of the branch. I went back in, grabbed the binoculars and watched from the bedroom window. Long story short, had a clear view of him eating a crow he had clearly just nabbed from a nest up in the tree. It was pretty gruesome, entrails hanging down, his sharp white teeth tearing pieces off (just as they were designed to do), and his very pink tongue trying to spit out the feathers.

The crows were absolutely ballistic, at least 50 of them hung around for an hour or more, sounding the alarm endlessly - but nothing to be done, alas. It was disturbing all in all, but I couldn't help thinking about the fact that he was just feeding himself, as raccoons and every other animal must do every day. I was grateful that it wasn't one of our chickens, and we'll remain vigilante to ensure they don't show up on the seasonal menu...

Later, we looked around under the pine (in our compost bin area) and found a leg and entrails that had dropped - so sad.... The crows have been hanging around all day, as if they're holding a wake and all the relatives are coming in for the memorial service. We'd had a baby crow hanging around trying to join our chicken flock (they were having none of it) - we fear it might have been him, he was so dopey maybe he wasn't wily enough to avoid the raccoon.

So, goodbye May - we're hoping for a sunnier June in all respects!