You can Tell

When they really have something... crows that is. Normally their calls are just a casual neighborhood report. Look, look, can you see? Hey, look.

When they are on a raptor, however, their caws ring like swords, slash, hack, bang, crash. Touche, take that. And that. And that. You can tell when they mean it.

They were on something this morning when I came downstairs. It sounded like a riot out there. I didn't get outdoors fast enough to see what it was. Prolly just the local Red-tailed Hawk pair though. They are here almost all the time, and the crows bedevil them endlessly. 

I keep hoping for an owl. Any owl. We have Great Horned Owls in the back, but I only see errant feathers stuck in bushes where they took out rabbits and mice.....maybe some day.

Anyhow, where Alan works they are near the sea and so they frequently see the big raptors of the watery places. Not long ago he was watching a crow bombing an Osprey, acting all that and a bucket of rice, as Liz would say.

The big bird took just so much of the little fellow stabbing at his back feathers. Then he flipped over, flew upside down for a second, nabbed the crow....pinch....with his big, sharp talons. 

And dropped him. Boom shakalaka. No more crow. 

I wish I'd seen that.