Interspecies Communication Crow-nicles, by SunBôw

Interspecies Communication Crow-nicles, by SunBôw:

Greetings SCENIC readers. The return of spring and other involvements have kept me from posting this month. Below is a compilation of posts on FB describing my interactions my Crows in recent months. Being once again censored and blocked from posting or commenting on FB, this is another reminder to use social medias strictly for communication and sharing content which should be stored on a safe platform like this blog, where it remains archived and easily, quickly available for years.

So here are a few anecdotes, reflections and insights learned from interspecies communication with my winged friends, featuring many feathered friends, but starring these two crows in this video taken by my neighbor.

March 6:

Three little birds outside my window singing sweet songs…

Snow Buntings enjoy another winter day of blizzard and a few crumbs to help them make it through. Just throw out a handful of compost or bread and somehow their air patrol spots it quickly and alerts the flock which soon arrives like a spiraling whirlwind.

Lovely to see there is still some freedom for some out there…

March 8: Late winter cabin blues chattering…

It’s a beautiful day in the neighborhood… if you watch the whiteout from indoors. A sea of endless snow whitening land and sky like glistening powdered bleach flickering in a rocambolesque valse dizzying the disoriented scattered birds, with foaming waves of whiteness splashing against the tumultuous wind gusts carrying ghostly clouds surfing swiftly but furiously across the trembling landscape concealed behind a blurry veil of fluttering confetis and under a heavy coat of deep frozen slumber blanketing it from the cold breathing whirls roughening the fittest and the merciless elements starving the environment into lethargic stillness.

After weeks of non-stop intense hyperactivity, the blizzard is finally taking a break it seems, making room for a glimpse of sunshine. We hope it will last more than a while and that milder weather will bless us soon, as this long harsh winter hasn’t spared us from the cabin blues and the backbreaking shoveling chores.

I had given up on the snow removal routine lately, so now the van looks like an igloo between eight-foot-tall snow mounts and it will be quite a project to carve my way out back to civilization… some day. We still expect additional snowfalls and have strong winds with snow drifts, so the landscape changes shape by the hour, making it questionable to shovel as it snows daily, when you don’t have to go anywhere. Nope. Not going out yet. Staying in my hole hibernating like Groundhog.

Enjoy the rest of winter. May it be kind and peaceful for all…

March 27: Signs of spring?… Well it’s starting to melt, but it doesn’t look quite like spring yet. The Crows still enjoy their daily crumbs thrown out my back door and the Snow Buntings are still around. However, the Gyrfalcon is starting to lose its white and turn gray. Some hope…

March 30: Neighbors must think I’m weird when I open the window to call out to the crows. Then I step outside and the whole murder of crows gathers around me and escorts me, as I walk across the village and we caw back and forth. Glad these relatives understand me. As for my neighbors, I might have a little explaining to do. Good thing for them though that I don’t call out to Sasquatch…

April 3: Victory!! Finally, with some better traction aids and a couple of friends pushing, I managed to get out of my ice coffin after six weeks and went for a ride in the hood. Interestingly, we had a 7-hour power outage a couple nights ago and my friends followed a spaceship flashing beams of light which apparently landed in a field nearby. Nice to have visitors so far off from the beaten path.

The crows noticed my van was gone, so when I drove back to the village after a few hours, they lined up along the road to greet me back. By the time I was on my doorstep, the whole cawing murder was chatting around me, asking for some fresh news. They got a little more picky the last few days with the warmer weather, but they gathered again to pick at the prunes and spaghetti left overs.

Thanks for your encouragements and good wishes. I finally got across the ice wall that was separating me from the rest of the world. A few more weeks and we should run in the woods…

April 16: Nesting season. If you don’t know what to do with your loose hair, birds can use it to make their nests cozier. Next door neighbors are very quiet. But the couple of crows who picked my beard hair for their nest greets me every morning…

April 17: Robin Hood the Wormhole Seeker – Plot: Robin and his flock are caught in an Easter snow storm, compromising their supply source. But the brave wormhole chaser finds his way to defy the odds… (Photos taken within a minute while sitting at my kitchen table. The scene unfolded at 2 meters from my seat. Imagine what happens in an hour…)

Starling says his fleet is not connected to Starlink despite his starry suit…

April 22: Traveler’s tip: One thing I’ve been learning increasingly recently is that if you know where you’re heading, don’t bother asking around for directions from people who don’t know. If you need advice, ask people who have traveled the path you follow before you…

April 26: Gifts from the Crows…

What a lovely surprise! Today, my Crow friends dropped me a couple gifts by my doorstep, just outside the bay window through which we got used to watch each other up close, to make sure I would find it easily. I look at that cement slab daily and even cleaned it yesterday, so their gifts were obvious to notice.

There was a black plastic tie and a two-inch long, flat shiny metal pin side by side. Since there was two objects, I suspected that it was a concerted effort from that couple who used my beard hair for their nest, to thank me for having fed them leftovers through the winter, along with their feathered relatives. They’ve always cleared the slate clean, except for veggies and prunes they didn’t touch.

I wasn’t mistaken, as when I stepped outside and picked up their offerings, they cawed happily and flew by for a chat. They had been standing by, perched in the closest trees, watching and waiting for me to find their gifts. What a great example of intelligence, friendship and gratitude many humans could learn from! This made my day!

My first gifts from Crows. Thanks Crows! Miigwetch Ade…

May 1: Crow nickel chronicle…

After my Crow friends brought me a shiny metal pin and a plastic wrap days ago, I thought of thanking them with a little shiny star trinket and a red ribbon. I laid the star on a flat stone and stuck the center of the ribbon under it, so it wouldn’t fly away.

They first put the star next to the stone, didn’t touch the ribbon, but left it all there. So I knew they had noticed the star and didn’t care to keep it, but curious, I put it back on the stone. Maybe they would see it as a game to play the token when coming for food.

Knowing they were more interested in leftover spaghetti, I gave them an offering and they again cleared the slate clean to the last bit, except for the carrot dices they meticulously left aside. They’re a bit picky and usually uninterested when it comes to vegetables. However, after a couple days the carrots disappeared as well and I’m not sure if they were eaten or simply removed out of courtesy.

The next time, they put again the star aside, but this time they folded the ribbon over the stone and the star. We’re getting closer to a three-piece puzzle, yet at this point, I’m not sure if they’re trying to figure out what’s the trick or giving me a riddle to solve. Further investigations might provide an answer. If any expert crowlogist interpreter out there has a clue, please let me know.

Interspecies communication teach us to think outside of our limited human mind to understand non-human intelligence. The teaching goes both ways. We might not be the smartest ones after all…

May 12: Quick tour of the hood with friends and Crow stories…

As the Crows are busy nesting and Nature is coming back to life, what a great time to go out and enjoy the warm springtime sunshine and fresh clean air. Yesterday, stopped at friends’ for coffee during which we painted aquarelles. Then, we hiked the wooded trail to visit our old hermit friend, whose main concern has been to define the boundary between his territory and the beavers’ who have been trying to flood him. Gladly, he spotted a cougar patrolling the river banks in search of beaver feast. We also saw fresh wolf tracks and droppings only a few hours old, they surely enjoy an occasional beaver meal as well. Raven had a long conversation with me, waiting for us on a high tree by the car.

On the way back, we checked out the tepee, which seems ready and suited for ceremonies. Exploration season is just starting. Been planning for a while to go visit some mountain tops and special power spots to do offerings and build little medicine wheels.

This morning at my gifting space on my doorstep, there was a little circle of stones. Now, the Crows have been leaving me gifts lately, a shiny flat pin and a plastic wrap at first. Then I left an Aussie Crow feather and they quickly threw it off to the side, so thinking they didn’t like it, I picked it back and left gems. Then they left me at the exact same spot a nice piece of aspen looking like a Crow head and moved the black gem.

There is too many details to report, but this stone circle this morning makes me wonder if the Crows are the only one involved in the process. They might have had help from some forest folks to build this stone circle unless they’re extremely smart Crows.

More to tell than time allows. This taught me that I don’t need to wait to get to the mountain top to make altars and ceremonies, it starts on my doorstep. After all, the forest is just 20 yards behind. That’s it for now. Be well you all…

May 13: My Crow friends keep amazing me…

Lately, I’ve been slowing down on food offerings, not to create a dependency and avoid domestication of wildlife, since springtime brings more available resources and the Crows are less seen, busy at attending their nests. However, this morning I left them a couple of old muffins, thinking it was a bit of a big breakfast for just a couple of Crows. It took only minutes before the big male, usually first one on feeding grounds, appeared to inspect the finding.

His first reaction was to caw out loud to the whole murder and let them know that there was a snack for everyone. He was instantly replied by happy caws from the woods all around the village. He then picked a muffin and instead of taking off with it, started splitting it in pieces that he began dropping at random spots around the lawn, about 10 to 15 feet apart from each other.

He then picked the second muffin and proceeded in the same way, so that there was about a dozen of pieces of muffins scattered around the backyard before he grabbed his own morsel, took a few bites and finally flew off with the rest to is nest.

Then came the closest nesting female who took her piece and flew off. Every other Crow in the neighborhood followed in turn, likely following the hierarchic order of their row in the flock, until within minutes, every piece of muffin had been picked by a different bird.

I was flabbergasted to see this admirable tribal community organization, how the leader’s first reaction was to call on his peers to share his prize and he even took care of sharing the jackpot in fair parts for all the members of his extended family to benefit. Without being able to verify, I wouldn’t be surprised he knew exactly how many pieces he had to split the muffins into.

This great example of intelligence, care, Love and wisdom that us humans can learn from, was my daily medicine teaching today. Although they are getting used to see me watch them across the window, they are still camera shy and won’t hang around if I move, so I don’t have clear shots of them. The photo below shows the stone formation -between a circle and a square- that I found two days ago (for which I suspect the Crows had some help, maybe?)…

May 14: Today’s lessons at Crow school…

My studies in Crow language and psychology took a new turn today. Yesterday, observing closely the photos taken, I realized that their last move was an intricate message. I mentioned earlier the little stone circle that appeared on my gifting space three days ago.

My first reflex was to adjust the stones to make the circle rounder. However, looking closer at photos, I noticed that it was rather between a square and a circle. So after reflection, I figured that in Crow imagery, it represented my brick house, and the stone in the middle represented me watching the Crows through the window.

With this clue, I redesigned the enclosure to form a squarish shape, leaving open spaces for my three windows and my door. I added some beard hair on the middle stone marking my spot, with a crystal on it.

I put a Crow feather with its stem under the stone, so it wouldn’t fly off, and its tip pointing out of the window, sitting on the flat stone representing the gifting space, to depict the gifting and communication process I’ve been practicing with them.

Then I made a small round nest out of grass and put in it three black stones. I had noticed that the only stone they had moved so far out of the gems I left out was the black one, so I figured they liked its black color, same as their own. To complete the picture I added two old muffins for their breakfast. All the while I was working on the gifting space, they were greeting me with happy morning caws, but their chorus exploded as I put out the muffins. Of course, food is always a winner, preferred over other gifts (unless I try to feed them veggies). I missed their feeding party but indeed, the food was gone and the slate swept clean as usual.

But my surprise was when I noticed that they had interacted with the puzzle. They moved the crystal and hair to the edge of the flat stone, but not off of it, which seems to mean that I was not to be seen in the window when they had breakfast today. Then they moved the tip of the feather aside, just off the flat gifting stone, like if saying the slate is clean, but the connection remains open. They also put down one of the sticks from the miniature tepee structure I built, but I’m not quite sure yet of what this could mean.

Yet, the most amazing part is that two of the black stones were gone. They left the obsidian that has been sitting outside for a couple weeks, but picked the black amber and labradorite that had colorful shiny reflections in them. I get the feeling that this might mean that there’s still two of them in their nest and chicks haven’t hatched yet, as I’ve been suspecting from observing their behaviors lately, since they remain discreet and more quiet by their nests. So apart from food, these two black gem stones are the first gifts they accept from me and took with them to God knows where.

It seems like we’re starting to understand each other better and they’re happy that I’m finally picking up what they tell me in their messages. By using this form of imagery, the Crows prove not only that they can produce artistic creations, but also that they use and understand abstract symbolism to illustrate objects and concepts. At first, I thought I was leaving them puzzles to solve to test their intelligence, but it turned out the other way around, as they act as the teachers in this whole communication process.

Yesterday, my neighbor complained that I stole ”her” Crows . But all I’ve done is engage in gifting and communication and send Love. They are wild birds, free to go where they want and do what they please, and I intend to let them remain free and independent.

Again, there’s more than I can report here from this detailed bit by bit process, but this is it in a nutshell, about my discoveries and Crow lessons for this day. All life is sentient and intelligent. Love is the universal language. Blessed be all living beings…

May 21: Much has kept happening on a daily basis, so I couldn’t report every detail. We hiked a mountain and did ceremony on the eclipse. My interactions with the Crows and other birds continue on a daily basis, with unexpected surprises. These anecdotes might hopefully provide a few insights in ways to develop interspecies communications.

One of the reasons why I have tended more to share such daily updates on FB is for the years of use there and an audience that still contributes the largest part of SCENIC readers, although FB recently disconnected our SCENIC page from this blog. Another reason is that uploading images to WordPress takes much longer, for some obscure reasons. It has been seriously frustrating to notice in the last four years how ridiculously slow and excessively difficult it is to upload photos here, with countless failed attempts before one finally goes through, making me waste entire days trying to upload a dozen of photos for a post here. Because of this, I have only been able to upload a few photos to SCENIC, while many have failed repeatedly to upload. What facilitates the process is reducing the size of every photo to upload, an extra operation requiring time.

However, everything here is easier to find with a quick search, and technically there shouldn’t be any censorship, except from the All-seeing algorithms, as opposed to the situation on large social medias where centralized control is increasingly imposed. After decades of networking, it has become harder to reach out and stay afloat in the sea of webs and ebbs flooding the internet, while mainstream sources are pushed to the top.

Also, it seems like recently, it doesn’t matter whether I spend 10 or 100 hours a week networking, get 350 or 35K views, my modest income remains unchanged regardless of the amount of work invested. This sharing of information remains mostly a voluntary service.

With these words, I greet you goodbye, until next time. Thanks to our readers…

Thanks for your donations. Best blessings to all…