How clever are crows? No doubt you've heard the story about how a crow
will pick up rocks and drop them in a bucket of water to raise the
water level high enough so they can drink from it? Well, I've actually seen
them do that. And they know that cane toads are poisonous. If a crow
ate one whole it would die... because of the poison glands. But I've
seen them land near a squashed toad on the road, pick it up by the hind
leg, flip it over and pick out it's guts. Then when that's all gone,
leave the rest of the toad where it found it. That's pretty clever.
Oh, and when I was a kid we used to have a hard time with the crows
raiding the vegetable garden and eating the fruit in the orchard. They
got used to the scarecrows... would even sit on them... so they became
useless. My dad used to shoot at them so they learned to recognise a
rifle, and if they saw him with it they would fly away well before he
had the chance to get any of them. But sometimes he wasn't at home, so we kids would pick
up a stick, aim it at them and yell "BANG". They knew that it was just a stick
though, and would just sit in the trees and cackle at us. But when they
saw Dad come home and get out his rifle... off they'd go again.
Then this morning I got even more confirmation on their intelligence. It made me chuckle, so I had to tell you about it...
I pulled into the car park out front of Little Miss 8's school and noticed something that I hadn't noticed before.... something a little odd. The 4WD parked next to us had a doona folded up so that it was as wide as the car and laying half on the bonnet, half on the windscreen. I was wondering why Mrs XXX (a teacher's aide) had left a doona on the bonnet of her car... perhaps she'd bought it along to use for a picnic and forgotten it? ... perhaps her knees got cold in class? ... perhaps she intended on donating it for the fair, or something? I wasn't sure... but I thought it was a bit odd.
Then I looked across the way and noticed that the two teachers' cars had towels rolled up and left in the same position. Curiouser and curiouser. I must have looked confused, because before I could say anything about it, Little Miss 8 gave me the answer as she climbed out of the car.
"The crows have been stealing the windscreen wipers," she told me. "They sit on the bonnet and lift up the windscreen wipers with their feet, then steal the rubbers off them. So the teachers have been using towels to wrap around their wipers. Mrs QQQ has plastic tubes that she puts over hers."
I had to laugh... Sorry teachers. I suppose I wouldn't think it was so funny if they were pinching mine, but I had to laugh anyway.
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• Wednesday 2 August 2006 - Beastly Birds