Last evening and early this morning, I had the great pleasure of watching two adult crows feeding their two young, in my backyard here in the Berkshires. The two older crows were hunting, actively poking, pecking and peeking at the lawn, looking for bugs and other tasty treats. And the two young watched and watched them, following dutifully, mimicking some of their parents’ moves.
When an adult caught a bug, the young ones jumped and hopped and hopped and half-flapped their wings and opened their mouths and squeaked and chased their parents and begged for food until their parents fed them. Once fed, they all went and sat on a wire, and then later went to hunt together some more. So very social!
Here’s one little sketch that I made, across two different moments in time, inspired by them:
I don’t know, but this sketch might just become the basis of a painting, maybe, perhaps titled Trip Wire. Or maybe it’s good enough on its own? (And yes, you guessed it, made the sketch on my iPad using the Paper app, by FiftyThree.com – great little speed-drawing app!)
Whether I make the painted composition or not… Crows, what an interesting species… Reality, and that little piece of reality that is the lives of crows, is so intricate, so delicate, so beautiful, and sometimes so difficult – if you ask me, reality is grander and more interesting than anything else.
Harhahr. I think they were saying ‘feed me! feed me! mama! dada! feed me!’
I wish I could know what the crows are saying! They are pretty noisy aroind here.