Crows have black feathers and black hearts!

By Al Lowe
Contributor

When we think of the birds of spring, we usually think of the Robin, or some other nice bird. Actually, the bird which comes back to us really early is the crow. You can usually hear him long before the snow has gone.
In almost any other situation, the crow is not nearly so welcome. It is noisy, always ravenously hungry, and is smart enough to keep out of your way when you are trying to trap, scare, discourage or shoot it. The behaviour of crows indicates that they may very well be the intellectuals of the bird world. Laboratory tests prove that they do have a very high degree of intelligence. This is a fact which any farmer since the time of Romans could have told anyone who would listen.
Our crow is the Common Crow, or American Crow (Corvus brachyrynchos). Crows of one kind or another are found almost all over the world, except New Zealand. Everyone knows what crows look like - large and black. The only other bird in Northern Ontario which could be mistaken for a Crow is the Raven.
Crows are not loved by farmers. They will dig up corn almost as fast as you can plant it, they will eat your peas, pod and all, off the vines, they will tear the husks off ripe corn cobs to get at the grain, they will guzzle the feed you put out for the chickens, and they will steal the food right from under your dog’s nose. They will also eat eggs, and even young chicks or ducklings. In all fairness, crows eat a lot of undersireable things, such as mice and insects, however, it is usually accepted that their bad acts far outweigh their good ones. Crows are also one of natures better garbage collectors. They will flock to animal carcasses in very large numbers.
Crows have an immense hatred of owls, especially the Great Horned Owl. This owl can strike terror into the crow community at night, moving swiftly on silent wings in the dark. But heaven help the owl who is found by a flock of crows in the daytime. They will gather around him, caw at him, peck at his feathers, and generally make his life totally miserable. Crows will come from miles around to join in the fun. I have seen more than a hundred crows pestering one owl, in southern Ontario.
Crows make very interesting pets. I had several when I was a boy. We used to get young crows out of the nests, at the tops of the big old spruces not far from home. They soon became tame. In fact, some of them become positively obnoxious. One will sometimes become so attached to you that you just can’t get rid of it all day. Crows have a great attachment for anything shiny, which they take away and hide someplace. When the ‘shiny things’ turn out to be silver coffee spoons, or silver coins, I can tell you that a tame crow can very soon wear out his welcome. My Scottish mother referred to one particular bird as ‘that imp of Satan’, and was always going to strangle it. However, she was really a kind soul, and the crow lived quite a long time.
Crows are not particularly plentiful in these parts of Northern Ontario, so we don’t have the same problems with them as do those folks where they exist by the thousands.
So, when the long cold winter is starting to wind down, and the sun is creeping up a wee bit higher in the sky, even if it is only March, we can look kindly on the crows for a while, and welcome them back as the first sign of spring.