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Russell and Sheryl
updated: Apr 20, 2011, 1:04 PM
By David Powdrell
Love ‘em or hate ‘em, crows are incredibly crafty rascals.
My wife and I live in a little beach shack next to the Carpinteria State Beach Park. On Sunday mornings, the sweet salty smell of maple-flavored bacon wafts into our house as campers in custom RV's and tents set to cookin' up breakfast. Children unfurl themselves from warm, cozy sleeping bags and take to their bikes and boogie boards.
Besides the smell of the bacon, however, we can tell what the campers are eating based on what two intelligent, crafty crows bring over to soak in our garden bird bath. Now I'm sure there are more than 2 crows flying in, but my wife and I like to think that Russell and Sheryl are the regulars, and we've "adopted" them accordingly.
I can never tell them apart, though. Heck, I can't even tell which is male and which is female, but one of them swooped in this morning with 2 peanuts in its beak. He/she dropped them into the bird bath, stood patiently for 20 seconds on the rim, then plucked both peanuts out of the water and flew off to an empty park bench to enjoy the feast.
A few minutes later, the other soared down out of the eucalyptus trees with a pretzel in its beak and did the same ritual. Drop, soak, pluck, fly. Evidently, soft wet pretzels go down the hatch easier.
We get quite a bit of sandwich bread and potato chips floating in the bird bath. But the oddest thing of late was the squirrel carcass that was dropped in. My guess is that it was roadkill. Evidently, crows have been known to store their bounty of animal carcasses in pools of water until they're ready to eat it.
They're a daily show for me as my office overlooks the birdbath. I thought I'd share a few pictures of Russell and Sheryl in action for you.
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