Chubby Fat Squirrels and Crazy Crows

There was an odd crow this morning that insisted on cawing after every action.

Dig beak into dirt, caw-caw! Throw a leaf aside, caw-caw! Get beak stuck in the dirt, caw-caw! Wriggle beak back out, caw-caw!

A chubby, fat squirrel noticed the commotion and snuck up on the crow to investigate. After a stealthy creep and stop to behind the crow, he realized that the crow was simply a nut-case, so he turned sideways and pretended to be simply passing by. The crow turned to look at him, caw-caw! And then he turned back to his digging.

He wasn't very successful in finding any hidden worms. I guess he's just too noisy of a fisherman.

I hope all of you have had a good week. Mine was a whirlwind of work and crazy deadlines. However, I did have some good news in a bookmark sale that came with a sweet note. Apparently the customer was so pleased with the quality and packaging of the first bookmark that she purchased from me that she instantly bought another one! She said that the bookmark was better in person than in the picture. Hehehe... I guess that means I need to take better pictures!

I also came across some wonderful Etsy shops! Here are some felt towers from Intres, nesting owls from Savage Artworks, a rabbit among ferns ACEO from Carmen Keys Art, and some beautiful fabrics from Cicada Studio.

The Smart Crow Gets the Innards

I read on Wikipedia today about crows and how smart they are when it comes to acquiring foods. Apparently, the Torresian crows in Queensland Australia have learned how to eat the toxic cane toad. Crows there have learned that by flipping the cane toad on its back and by violently stabbing the throat where the skin is thinner, the crow can access the non-toxic innards. Their long beak insures all the innards can be removed. Pretty gross, huh? Still, it proves that the smart crow gets the innards. I suppose the dumb crows get poisoned and filtered out of the gene pool, poor things.

Crow with Broken Wing

I saw a crow with a broken wing on the way to work today. He stood on the side of the road and, for some reason, I knew that something was wrong with it. It looked kind of depressed and less lively than it should have been. It turned to hop away and I noticed that it was dragging its wing. It tried to hop up onto a branch on the ground and stumbled because its wing hit the branch. Regaining its balance, it turned around to look at me. It had a fluffy looking head, and I'm quite sure that it's a younger crow. It's funny because I had seen a crow just like this on the weekend. I had driven by and pointed it out to my friend.

The crow watched me, and I knew that it was scared. In earlier days, I would have caught him and taken him to the Wildlife Rescue to get fixed up, but today I didn't. All my past rescues have been put down - including one other crow with a broken wing. They had told me that the wing was beyond repair and the crow would never be able to fly again. I had felt angry that the crow hadn't been given the chance to try and survive without the ability to fly.

As I turned to walk away, I hoped that the little crow would be alright. Yes, he has a broken wing and, yes, he's kind of clumbsy, but maybe, just maybe, he'd have a better chance at life being a little broken than being made whole again.