Our crows have spring fever...

Buster on Oliver's Lot

Buster under the sumac on top of 2' of snow.

–as does Buster Brown! Buster was out listening for mice. (I captured Daisy on film digging one out! See cat and mouse!)

The blue bucket under the feeder was for water, although the deer thought it was a blue cat and were deeply suspicious. They'd been lapping up the meltwater under the feeder and I felt sorry for them. Mistake!

The natives are restless. Everyone is at the bird feeder; American crows, Red squirrel, Black squirrel (they estivate, not hibernate) and the first returning bird, a Grackle. (Robins overwintered this year. The fruits on the trees were plentiful.)

It's been unusually cold, for March. Today, it was -14 C. when I got up. The snow storm seemed to cause a crow meeting in the tree tops. Not so much a murder of crows, as a conversation, with a little creative input from my hubby!

   "It's been a long winter, huh?"
   "Yep. Just like the winter of '02! Do you remember?"
   "Do I ever. So cold I told the wife we should migrate. She thought the idea was for the birds. We're American Crows, for gawd's sake. Man up! And the only road kill in FLorida is alligators. Have you ever tried to peck one of those things when it's gone? Besides being a bird that survives the Canadian winter is really something to crow about!"
   

Grackles are back!

Life cannot be classified in terms of a simple neurological ladder, with human beings at the top; it is more accurate to talk of different forms of intelligence, each with its strengths and weaknesses. This point was well demonstrated in the minutes before last December's tsunami, when tourists grabbed their digital cameras and ran after the ebbing surf, and all the 'dumb' animals made for the hills. 

    ~B.R. Myers, author (b. 1963)