The Winged Demons
I do believe E.A. Poe must have gotten his inspiration for crows/ravens from Japan. These large creatures inhabit what seems every single neighborhood. And I know, deep down, that they are evil.
I am not sure what goes on every morning, is it a festival or a war, but they consistently wake me up before dawn. Cawing and cawing. Cawguing might be a good word. They interrupt and caw at each other. I have looked out my bedroom window, many times to determine if there is a particular high wire or tall tree that they fight for rights to during this chaos, but nothing to me looks all that high and mighty.
I walk down the street and I feel them watching me. Then one flies overhead to a perch and watches me walk by. Then they fly about 20 meters ahead (Asia is metric) and wait for me to pass while they watch. I think they want to steal my scarf. Their caws are loud, deep and menacing. One afternoon while goofing off around the house, I heard one outside, it's voice so deep I swore it was a man. I rushed over to the window to see. It wasn't a man. It was a doberman with wings and a beak. Its eyes were glowing red. I wonder if they are possessed, like in The Omen.
Yesterday my neighbor told me that the crows are building a nest in the tree, right outside their bedroom window. They are stealing *hangers* from the apartment building balconys next door--the Japanese hang clothes everywhere--and they are making a nest with hangers! No wonder the crow babies grow up to be evil. My neighbor got a friendly note from the Japanese apartment people telling them that the crows in their yard are stealing hangers, socks and other miscellaneous laundry and that they need to do something about it. I couldn't believe this is actually happening. So the property manager was called, to do something about these stealing crows, and I have no clue what will happen next.
I am sorry I don't yet have a photo to post of this nonsense. I am afraid if I snap a picture, one of them will then really come after me. but I will try to post one soon, so you can see what I mean.
Ira here...
Actually I kind of like them. It's like living in an Animal Planet documentary. Some of them have serious wing spans, and huge beaks that could really do some damage. Birds of prey type stuff. Supposedly they're pretty sharp for birds. I definitely wouldn't want to mess with them. Sometimes I worry that they might be eyeing Annika, sizing her up for lunch.
I am not sure what goes on every morning, is it a festival or a war, but they consistently wake me up before dawn. Cawing and cawing. Cawguing might be a good word. They interrupt and caw at each other. I have looked out my bedroom window, many times to determine if there is a particular high wire or tall tree that they fight for rights to during this chaos, but nothing to me looks all that high and mighty.
I walk down the street and I feel them watching me. Then one flies overhead to a perch and watches me walk by. Then they fly about 20 meters ahead (Asia is metric) and wait for me to pass while they watch. I think they want to steal my scarf. Their caws are loud, deep and menacing. One afternoon while goofing off around the house, I heard one outside, it's voice so deep I swore it was a man. I rushed over to the window to see. It wasn't a man. It was a doberman with wings and a beak. Its eyes were glowing red. I wonder if they are possessed, like in The Omen.
Yesterday my neighbor told me that the crows are building a nest in the tree, right outside their bedroom window. They are stealing *hangers* from the apartment building balconys next door--the Japanese hang clothes everywhere--and they are making a nest with hangers! No wonder the crow babies grow up to be evil. My neighbor got a friendly note from the Japanese apartment people telling them that the crows in their yard are stealing hangers, socks and other miscellaneous laundry and that they need to do something about it. I couldn't believe this is actually happening. So the property manager was called, to do something about these stealing crows, and I have no clue what will happen next.
I am sorry I don't yet have a photo to post of this nonsense. I am afraid if I snap a picture, one of them will then really come after me. but I will try to post one soon, so you can see what I mean.
Ira here...
Actually I kind of like them. It's like living in an Animal Planet documentary. Some of them have serious wing spans, and huge beaks that could really do some damage. Birds of prey type stuff. Supposedly they're pretty sharp for birds. I definitely wouldn't want to mess with them. Sometimes I worry that they might be eyeing Annika, sizing her up for lunch.
posted by Katrina at
7:05 AM
2 Comments:
Hi, Katrina, Ira, and kids. The raven has long been a symbol of death in a number of cultures, but crows are not often considered, generally speaking, as evil in folk tales and higher forms of literature. Crows and ravens are, again generally speaking, fairly non-threatening, but they are very, very smart, crows more so than ravens (which are rather reclUsive). There are few birds that can match them in wits. Some kinds of jays are up there, and parrots, too. But crows are always looking for ways to put to use anything they can find, and they don't mind living near dense gatherings of people. I'll be interested to see how you fare with them. I would suggest putting out some items you think they might find useful and see whether they take the bait. We had dozens of crows living on our property off Five Mile in Livonia back when I was a teenager. They didn't much intimidate me, but they could outfox me with their shenanigans. Thanks for the photos of the laundry, too. Living alongside farm fields in Okemos, we naturally have lots of crows around, but they seldom make trouble on our property.
Groups of geese are called a "Gaggle of geese". There are "flocks", "herds", and "prides". However, is it somewhat racial that groups of crows are referred to as a "Murder of crows"? I think all birds are creepy, nasty, and are planning a global attack on humans (thank you Alfred Hitchcock and the "flock" of seagulls that chased me down the road).
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home