2.14.2008

some birds

Recently I've seen a few things that entertained me to no end. Two things in particular deal with birds. Random? Yes. But such is life.

First, I saw, rather practically walked through, a murder of crows the other day while out on a walkabout. They were all very active: looking about, cawing, swooping here and there, etc. As I moved closer I saw what they were really up to. These crows were hunting chestnuts. The successful ones flew up into the air with their prize, positioned themselves over the road, and than dropped said nut from about 20 to 25 feet in the air. After dropping the nut they immediately went into a controlled free-fall right after it, grabbed it up off the concrete, and moved off to some high branch to eat the prize inside. The road was their nut cracker. Crows are rad.

The second bird event involves a parrot. Last night I saw a man and a woman doin' their weekly grocery shopping with a parrot. The parrot was just hanging out on the dudes shoulder. Between you and me, I think it looked a little bored, but glad to be out of the house.

4 comments:

boxfactoryboy said...

I know people go ga-ga for their pets, but you have to marvel at the ones that carry around birds only to have them crap on their shoulder. It happens. Something else to watch for on your walk-about. Yep it takes all kinds to make life interesting. I'll bet if you are your mothers daughter you went up and tried to talk to that bird. Maybe asked him what he was up to?! Maybe even said "pretty bird"? But then maybe that gene did not stick.

Dolce Vita said...

I saw a parrot a few weeks ago too. Out shopping on a shoulder.

My roommate in Seattle also had parrot that was potty-trained!

Crows merit all the clever tricks their accused of in those fables we heard as kids.

Rachel said...

crows are awesome.... way more cool than the pigeons that surround my apartment building and litter the ground with their offal. You know it's bad when it's exciting to see a seagull instead.

Anonymous said...

Well, are you my daughter? ... growing up in G'view, our neighbors had a very smart pigeon named Homer. He occaisionaly traveled downtown with his owner. One said trip, the owner's plans changed (a bar loomed on the horizon) --- he stopped Pop in the middle of traffic (not too much of an issue in G'view), extend his arm, and Homer walked from his owner's arm to Pop's extended arm and traveled back to the safety of Crescent Drive with Pop. Homer was also a neighborhood marvel; we discovered 'he' had laid eggs in Uncle John's bedroom. Shortly after that screens were purchased for the bedroom windows! You have to love birds, just not chickens...mom