Monday, December 21, 2009

Welcome to the Land of Crows

Well as my first official blog post, I thought I'd make something clear. I'm writing this for my own amusement, and perhaps the amusement of my friends and family. Anyone else that wants to read it, and is then amused, amazed or appalled.. hey, welcome!

So I drive a good 30 minutes to work every day. It's really about the same commute time that I had in Ohio, the difference here is that the freeway I'm driving on winds through gorgeous forested hills with a mountain backdrop. And, the crows. In Ohio, especially where I drove, I saw Herons almost every single day flying near the freeway. I assume they were off to go stand picturesquely in some corporate business's front pond where the busy freeway drivers would completely fail to notice their beauty and thusly have a crappy day instead of getting warm fuzzies. I always got warm fuzzies from them ("hey, there's MY heron! it's following me!!!")

Unlike those other drivers, I notice things. I attribute this to my parents, especially my mom who was a nature freak and felt the need to point out every type of tree, plant, leaf, insect and animal in any forest we ever visited. Now I wish I'd paid more attention.
It does, however, mean that I notice things as I drive that I think other drivers just miss. Here I see an occasional red-tailed hawk on a light post, a sea gull or two, and crows. LOTS of crows. So many crows, that I think they must be Washington's state bird. They are so big that I sometimes mistake them for hawks until I get close enough to distinguish their ruddy feathering and distinct beaks.

I realize this is probably geography-related. Perhaps western Washington has song birds? Here I think the crows have eaten them or something. There are no flocks of songbirds winging across the sky in impressive synchronized flying (how the hell do they NOT hit each other as they constantly shift directions?!). Instead you get the baleful stare of a crow from a lamp post, or a tree branch. Just not the same.

Just a shout out for anybody that wants to do yet another remake of the movie The Birds? Come to eastern Washington, these crows are freaky scary huge and just waiting to peck people's eyes out, I can feel it.

Del

4 comments:

  1. I'm SO glad you notice and appreciate the world around you, yet another one of the many, many reasons I adore you.
    Yeah, crows are awesome, huge, scary, beautiful, smart as hell, and very prolific here in CA. too. They walk up our front walk like they own the place and I half expect them to reach into their feathery pockets and pull out a house key.
    I love your blog and I think your 'name' is scrumptious.
    Blog on mama!
    love, wicked

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  2. Nice observations! Please update your blog more than I do.
    .......dad

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  3. What wonderful observations. Yes crows are as big as volkswagons here. They are actually blackbirds. Wise old souls.

    Keep up the great blogs, lovie!

    ....auntie pat

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  4. Wait til you see the pacific northwest racoons. They're mini bears.

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