Saturday 9 November 2013

Counting Crows

Keen discussion

Counting Crows

One for sorrow,
Two for joy,
Three for a girl,
Four for a boy,
Five for silver,
Six for gold,
Seven for a secret never to be told.

You go check it out!
"One for Sorrow" is a traditional children's nursery rhyme about magpies. I've used it here! According to an old superstition, the number of magpies one sees determines whether one will have bad luck or not. We often have a trio in our backyard. Being fixed, I don't think we anticipate a girl!
Always me? Whatever.
 These are American Crows. We don't have magpies in southeastern Ontario. All are part of the corvid family.

The genus includes jackdaws, crows and ravens, and magpies (the latter of which: are absent in Ontario!).

American Crow

Northern Raven
43-53 cm (17-21”)
Completely black, purplish in sunlight, with large, chunky, strong black bill and feet.

Woodland, farmland, grove, shore
As far north as mid/central Ontario (summer) and northern Ontario.

A loud cawcah or kahr

55-68 cm (22 – 27”)
Wedge-shaped tail
Hawk-like in its flight (gliding/circling)
Roman nosed bill, goiter-like neckfeathers.
Boreal and Mt. forests, coastal cliffs, tundra. Does not venture much to southern Ontario.

Croaking cr-r-ruck or prruk, metallic tok

Camera-Critters #292


I'm having a nap.
Big birds

Protest?

12 comments:

sandyland said...

I can hear them in my mind

TexWisGirl said...

i love the crows and their family units.

eileeninmd said...

Cool post and photos of the Crows! Have a happy weekend!

Maude Lynn said...

Lovely shots!

carol l mckenna said...

Very regal looking crow and wonderful shots of the flock ~ thanks, carol, xxx

SarahBeth said...

Great pics! I like the one where they are lined up across the road :)
Roadblock!

Anonymous said...

Love crows and other Corvids. They are so intelligent.

Red said...

I'll send all out magpies your way to make you happy. We don't have jackdaws.

Powell River Books said...

We have a pair of resident ravens at the cabin. The poem says joy, but sometimes they can bring grief, especially when they tear into a container looking for food. - Margy

Louisette said...

Great pics crows, best regard from Belgium

Sallie (FullTime-Life) said...

Crows are everywhere. Here and in Oregon and everywhere else we've ever stayed. I'll be counting them from now on. And, the rhyme sounds better with "crows" than "magpies!"

Kay said...

I can never tell ravens and crows apart. I sure didn't know that magpies were in the same family either. This was very interesting!