So in my struggles with the winged species, I have somehow moved from small and pretty birds (mainly doves, for some reason), to larger, almost terrifying birds.
I really thought I was doing so well. At our new house we have a canyon with trees behind our backyard. We get all sorts of wildlife traveling through: birds (even owls and hawks), possums, raccoons, rabbits and coyotes. We even get teens that like to play tag with BB guns. I enjoy seeing the wildlife, (not including the teens) it makes me feel closer to nature, even though we are smack dab in the middle of suburbia.
In the spring I thought my peaceful period with doves had reached its end. A pair built their nest in one of the trees directly behind our house. However, the cease fire seems to be holding steady. They visit my yard occasionally to use the bird bath, otherwise they leave me alone. It's actually kind if nice having a few doves enjoy me in some capacity.
Now summer is approaching, which means days are getting longer. What this means to people with kids, is that morning starts earlier and bedtime is so far away. On those wonderful days when you realize that it's 6:30 AM and the kids are still asleep, YOU GET MORE SLEEP!!!
I am very much a person who enjoys sleeping in AND taking naps. I have even taken measures to ensure the cat won't wake me up early.
For about three weeks now I have been harassed in various ways by a few birds (or possibly a flock). Since these birds have a reputation, I have tried very hard to either ignore the issue or passively deal with them.
Every other morning one of them will fly to the roof and peck at the metal cover over our chimney. When you're outside, it's annoying and you start thinking about whether they're causing damage. However my kids on the inside of the house seem to think there is now a monster, either in the wall (if they're upstairs) or in the fireplace. They will come running outside, either screaming or crying depending on the child, about how there is someone in the house. Of course these are the moments when you forget about the damn bird and go off to find the bat...or laugh at with your kids.
Those are the times when everyone is awake so it isn't too bad. However, between 4:30 and 5:30 in the morning is very, very different. I'm not sure why this time seems important to these specific birds, but it is. These birds act like your worst stereotypical neighbors, you know, the ones that fight and scream all the time at each other.
On the weekdays, these birds will sit outside the tree directly behind our house, or my neighbor's, and squawk at each other for about twenty minutes. Then they either figure out who won the argument and fly off, or fly off to continue it anywhere else. If they're married birds, then they flew off to have it elsewhere.
On the weekends, they do start the argument a little later in the morning, however now they are messing with precious sleep-in time. I will get out of bed and shut the balcony doors and put a pillow over my head. This is the passive method and it works for now. When it starts getting warmer, I may take my neighbor's stance and go more aggressive. She has an air rifle. She also doesn't take kindly to the squawking. She doesn't hit the birds directly, just aims in the their general direction, but lower. It works very well...but some mornings she's either already up or she's waiting for me to take a more helpful position in this battle.
I mentioned earlier that these birds were larger and had a reputation. They are crows, of the huge variety. One of these birds is about the size of my rat terrier, but a hell of a lot smarter. Unlike doves which are the symbol for peace, crows are associated with things like harbingers of death, soul carriers, tricky gods and what not. I've seen movies and read books, I know.
I also realize that even if they don't deal with death, mortality and souls, these are amazingly smart creatures. I can't remember where I read or heard these things, but I bet Google would help with those interested. Either way, crows are extremely smart, they have great memory, they adapt very well, they use tools and they seem to communicate on a higher level than other birds.
Crows are thought to recognize people's faces and remember their actions. So if one person gives them food versus another person going out with say, an air rifle, they can remember your face and action, even if you aren't where they met you. In other words, if I was nice to them in my backyard and then went to a park where they happened to be, they would remember me. Creepy huh?! So I don't think getting an air rifle would be a good thing...I've seen the movie "Birds."
I've read about several experiments involving crows and the use of tools. I know they can figure out which sticks to use to reach the food; they've even used sticks to reach longer sticks to get to the food, or bend wires if it's needed. There was also the fable or story about a crow wanting water from a pitcher. The water was too low, so the crow used rocks to displace the water until he could drink it. (They did that experiment somewhere and the crows sailed through without any guidance.) Read: if these same experiments were conducted on people, some would either fail and/or get beaten by the crow in a timed situation.
I'm thinking in the case of the crows, the white flag of surrender is appropriate here. If these crows can remember my face and any action I took against them, I don't need anymore trouble with birds. Especially since they are known to talk to other crows and let them know that they need to hate me too. Not to mention, the crow pecking at my chimney cover, is probably eating termites or ants. It probably thinks it is doing me a favor since I don't shoot at it early in the morning.
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