UTNE : AS THE CROWS FLY
The urban wild's most resilient creature shows us what's beautiful, what's ugly, and what's missing. By Luanda Lynn Haupt, from the book Crow Planet
November-December 2009
EXCERPT:
" I heard of a crow that accompanied a mail carrier on his daily route every day for more than two years, walking behind him like a golden retriever before inexplicably disappearing. I heard from a Benedictine nun that a crow in the woods surrounding her monastery befriended a large black, green-eyed cat named Ashford, and that the two shared in feasting on the birds that Ashford caught and killed. I heard from a friend that she was watching a crow work for some time to balance a medium-size stone atop a larger stone. “Was it making art?” she wanted to know. I heard from a pilot friend that his friend (for many crow stories spiral compellingly through some kind of lineage in this way), also a pilot, watched the Snowbirds (the Canadian Forces’ equivalent of the Blue Angels) practicing for an air show, and afterward, a crow in the trees near the airfield practiced flying upside down. Am I incredulous? Certainly, somewhat. But can I deny it? Who hasn’t seen a crow do something we do not expect of “simple” birds, or any animal, for that matter? Who doesn’t have a crow story? And the more attention we offer, the more the crow stories spring up around us, like grass..."
