photo by Anchor Lee on unsplash
My friend Lucy had an unfortunate run in with a batch of crows. They don’t call a flock of crows a “murder” for nothing. Here’s proof.
As she squealed into her parking space at work one morning, Lucy hit and killed a crow scavenging through fast food wrappers.
Suddenly, a hundred angry crows surrounded her car. They dive-bombed her car, covering it in guano. They began to scream “There! There!” which called in more crow pals to attack the offending vehicle. She was terrified. She grabbed an umbrella and made a run for the front door of work as birds followed her, screaming, pecking and dropping guano on the umbrella.
The few co-workers gathered at the front windows were astounded as they watched the entire event. (I would have placed a bet on whether she would get into the building without getting nailed with guano, but that’s just me.)
At the end of the day, Lucy walked out the door tired and was pissed to see that her car was covered in guano. As she made her way across the parking lot, the crows spotted her. “There!” “Murderer!” they cawed as they starting dive bombing her. She fled in terror to her car and jumped in with minimal guano damage to her suit. As she roared out of the parking lot, a bunch of angry crows followed close behind her. She lost them on the interstate.
You’d think this would be the end of the story but no. Every morning for months there were crows waiting for her in the parking lot. When she pulled in, those crows were on her, scolding and dropping guano on her car. She finally started driving her husband’s car to work and parking in a different spot. She swears it was a year before the crows ended their vendetta. To this day my friend is afraid of a murder of crows. Who’s to say they haven’t been told to watch out for her?
Aren’t you impressed how well crows communicate their feelings (outrage in this instance) with one another? And their memories of the destruction of one of their kind is pretty amazing. Wonder if they communicate their happiness with one another just as strongly. Like us, it’s often lots easier to share the complaining and trash talk than it is to express true positive emotions that make us feel vulnerable: like love, affection, contentment and joy.
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