CROWS ON POLES

“What are you looking at?” Alex asked as he came into the room and saw me looking out the window and up into the sky.”

I pointed up to the top of the telephone pole that was next to our driveway. “Do you see the crow sitting on the top of the pole?”

Alex came over to the window. “Oh, yeah. I wonder what he's doing?”

“He's building a nest.” I had to look down for a minute because my neck was getting a kink in it. “I've been watching them come and go all morning.”

“On the top of the pole?”

“Nope. Keep watching.” We both looked back up as the crow began to caw.

Finally another crow landed on the pole and looked at the stick the first crow had delivered. After a moment the crow seemed to give some sort of approval because the first crow took off with the stick and flew across the street to the big pine tree in our neighbor's yard. “I think that's where they're building their nest.” I squinted trying to see better. “See, this is where I wish you'd let me use my binoculars!”

“We've talked about that.” Alex reminded me. “You can't be the creepy neighbor who looks out your window with binoculars.”

“Fine.” I was still trying to see where they were in the pine tree. “It could also be their decoy nest.”

Alex looked confused. “A decoy nest?”

“Isn't that wild?” I couldn't help but laugh. “Crows are that smart! They build the decoy so that after the babies hatch, if a hawk sees them flying with food they just go to the decoy nest and the hawk thinks the babies are gone!”

Alex nodded his head in agreement. “Sounds pretty smart.”

Just then another crow landed on top of the pole and began to caw. “It's not just the couple who build the nest, but the babies from last year help, too. It's like a barn raising! The whole community comes out to help!” We both looked up to see what this crow brought. It was a large white thing that he'd pick up, then put down and caw, then pick up again.

“He seems pretty excited about his find.” Alex said. We waited for the approval bird to show up.

When he did, he was only there for a moment before he sent the first bird away without his donation. The crow, left on the pole, watched him fly off, then quickly pushed the white thing off the top of the pole before flying away himself.

I turned to Alex and started to laugh “Rejected!” I looked back out the window. “I have to see what it is.”

“Really?”

“Of course!” When I got across the street and saw what it was, I couldn't help but laugh as I came back into the house. “It was part of the bone from a T-bone steak!”

“Seriously?”

One hand on my heart the other palm facing him, “I swear!”

“Wow! I thought you said they were really smart!”

I shrugged my shoulder. “I guess one of them in their group didn't get the memo on approved nesting material!”

We watched as another one landed on the top of the pole with what looked like string.

“But I have to say, now that I saw that, I like crows even more!” I cried.

“Why?”

“Because he didn't want to hurt his feelings so he waited until he flew away before he pushed it off the pole.” I looked over at Alex. “That's so sweet!”

Alex looked at me for a moment. “How do you know he didn't call him stupid before he told him to fly away?”

“Well now you're just trying to ruin it for me.”