Friend or Foe?

This morning the crows in my neighbors' backyard were so obnoxious. They were cawing and screaming and circling and making a ruckus, during my prayer time. One was flapping at something and I assumed a fight was going on. I chose to ignore them, but it went on for hours! After walking my dogs, I stopped to figure out what was happening. There were 20 or more large black crows in the trees cawing bloody murder. "How can my neighbor stand it?"...I looked closer. A squirrel was there too. "Was it endangering a nest, in the winter?" No. It was watching. Hmmm. I decided to go closer. Trespassing.



A very large and seemingly important crow, was trapped, it's head stuck between two loose boards in their fence. I realized, with remorse, that it had flapped and struggled for hours, maybe even over night. It's family was beside themselves with distress. Gently, I spoke to it in my prayer language and gathered it's wings together between my palms. I lifted slowly upwards, till it was free. My instinct was to toss it into the air, so it could fly away, but it was in shock. The elbows of each wing were bloody but the bones of the wings seemed intact. It didn't scream, or struggle, as the crying birds followed me across the alley to my home and my trees. With snow on the ground, it is already cold. Praying over it in tongues, I waited for it to regain it's strength, laying it by my swept clean, back door. Over the next hour, it  rested, then suddenly flew into our massive, sheltering blue spruce. It began walking,  towards the busy avenue that borders the front yard. Worried it wouldn't make it across safely, I corralled it back towards the tree, but it fell face first in the deep snow, struggling and flapping it's wings again.  All the while, the 20 plus birds above, continued to scream. "This is not working, it's not ready," I decided.  I wrapped it in a warm green wash cloth and put it on a bough of the spruce to rest and recoup, and went inside. After 15 minutes, the desperate cawing suddenly ceased and the family birds, one by one, flew away in a respectful silence. I ran outside, thinking our bird had recovered. Instead, his head hung down, but he was still breathing. They may think all was over, but I knew that He had this little life in His hands and I refused to believe that it was over, quite yet.



Inside I found a laundry basket and laid him by the door in the sun, where it was warm. I checked on him and stroked his head from time to time,  as I went about my chores over the next three hours. Finally, I rubbed his head one last time, and he blinked at me. He rose suddenly and flew to the glass door, hid under my chair while I opened it, and flew out across the lawn, to the tree and towards the road again. As I drove towards school, I saw him, by the side walk, wandering and searching for his family, who believed that he had died. I drove on, astounded at his complete calm when with me, and his clear determination to be back with his family. Tonight, I learned that crows can recognize individual people, by face. They live in small family groups and siblings help raise nestlings. In the winter they socialize and nest in larger groups, and they are very very smart and loyal. They test like babies and better than dogs and chimps on intelligence tests, use tools, and learn and pass on information to others in their family group. So what will he tell them, I wondered? Am I friend or foe? Will the whole family be back to visit, or avoid me completely? For my part, I consider them friends!