Turkey. I have been getting fed a lot of fresh turkey meat lately. It used to be whole chicken legs, but I've gone off those a bit.
Turkey is OK. Just OK. I've seen a whole leg in a white plastic box in the fridge, but I never get a whole leg.
F cuts it up. I can smell it when she is working on it. The white plastic box comes back down to floor level with some scraps in it, nasty hard sinewy bits and some skin and the knuckle end of the bone. Whatever I decide to turn my back on gets chucked out on the lawn for the crows.
My strong objections to feeding crows get over-ruled, but I note that F is largely wasting her time these days. I wonder if she has noticed? Wood pigeons have discovered cardboard cat biscuits (I told her there was more cardboard than catfood in those things), and now there are flocks of wood pigeons hoovering up the 'crow food'. They have even overcome their wariness of the crows and strut right in under their sharp, pointy beaks - hoovering away.
Maybe wood pigeons believe in safety in numbers. They have certainly worked out that F is reluctant to shoo them if the crows are there too.
One species the crows won't stand for are magpies. They are both corvids so maybe something evolutionary tells them that this is competition for the same kind of food. That makes for an entertaining dance.
Now a huge gull (a really big, fierce looking, carry-off-a-cat-and-eat-it-for-a-snack sized one) has started sitting on a neighbouring roof, and when it sees the crows feeding on meat scraps, it dives in and wolfs down big lumps of skin and bone as fast as it can. F definitely chases that one away.
Turkey is OK. Just OK. I've seen a whole leg in a white plastic box in the fridge, but I never get a whole leg.
F cuts it up. I can smell it when she is working on it. The white plastic box comes back down to floor level with some scraps in it, nasty hard sinewy bits and some skin and the knuckle end of the bone. Whatever I decide to turn my back on gets chucked out on the lawn for the crows.
My strong objections to feeding crows get over-ruled, but I note that F is largely wasting her time these days. I wonder if she has noticed? Wood pigeons have discovered cardboard cat biscuits (I told her there was more cardboard than catfood in those things), and now there are flocks of wood pigeons hoovering up the 'crow food'. They have even overcome their wariness of the crows and strut right in under their sharp, pointy beaks - hoovering away.
Maybe wood pigeons believe in safety in numbers. They have certainly worked out that F is reluctant to shoo them if the crows are there too.
One species the crows won't stand for are magpies. They are both corvids so maybe something evolutionary tells them that this is competition for the same kind of food. That makes for an entertaining dance.
Now a huge gull (a really big, fierce looking, carry-off-a-cat-and-eat-it-for-a-snack sized one) has started sitting on a neighbouring roof, and when it sees the crows feeding on meat scraps, it dives in and wolfs down big lumps of skin and bone as fast as it can. F definitely chases that one away.
The crows hate being caught on the ground by the arrival of gulls - even small ones - but on Saturday F was cheering for the crows. (She can be really annoying sometimes.) The solitary crow, tugging meat off the turkey leg bone, dashed off with the arrival of the monster, fierce gull.
F chased the gull.
The crow came back, but brought a reinforcement which sat well hidden in the cherry tree overlooking its mate's renewed attack on the turkey bone. When the gull cruised in again, it had barely cleared the fence and lowered its landing gear when the hidden crow launched at it, and an aerial dog fight ensued over our garden.
Big, fierce looking, gull departed.
Crows don't look agile in the air, but flying they seem to be scared of nothing - and they've got reinforcements.
So why can't F see that crows are thugs?
(Note from F - on looking up this monster fierce gull in the RSPB bird identifier, I wonder if it was a glaucous gull.... We get lots of herring gulls here but it wasn't one of those. I know we are on the coast, but glaucous gulls are meant to be rare in this part of the UK. That isn't my photo by the way - just the best I could find of a similar looking monster fierce gull.)
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