Where Are The Crows?

BRING ME THE CROWS!!!! 🐦‍⬛🐦‍⬛🐦‍⬛🐦‍⬛🐦‍⬛🐦‍⬛🐦‍⬛🐦‍⬛🐦‍⬛

There is one, approved project in the house that is not the stair project.

It’s the crow project.

I *think* it started last fall when I saw this really cool little video on Instagram about this potter who makes these little porcelain trinkets with a UV glaze. AND THEY ARE FOR CROWS.

Murder Mix by Bee Cups

You know (of course you know) crows really love sparkly and shiny things. And they like stealing trinkets and they like gifting trinkets to to people who feed them.

Crows like peanuts. Did you know that too? Did you also know that the terms unshelled peanuts and shell peanuts are confusing? Shelled peanuts are peanuts with their shells removed. Unshelled peanuts are the ones that have not yet had their shells removed.

News you didn’t know you could use. Nah. You might not even be able to use it.

So. IDEAS. (More on ideas in the next post too). The idea is I wanted to build a crow feeder. And this was an approved project. (You know, because the stair project is not finished…as you can see in the photo below.)

I know we have crows in the neighborhood. A murder. I watch them congregate in the evergreen in front of the neighbors’ for-sale house at the end of the road. I see them flying around overhead in gangly gangs. They are so funny compared to other birds - renegade.

I didn’t want to buy some sort of feeder. I knew I could build something that would slide over the top of a t-post that’s already out in the middle of the hay field. Something big, that drains water - and can hold peanuts and the crow trinkets.

(Clears throat, as if this is a surprise) It took longer to build something than expected. It was really cold over the holidays. Too cold to be in the shed. Then I had to fix the nail gun because it stopped working. (This is just the story of all our lives now.)

Not glamorous, but it works! (and yeah, see that bottom stair?)

I built a thing! And last weekend it was finally warm enough to take it outside. So I filled it up and out we went.

Of course, I didn’t take any photos of the get up on the t-post out in the wild (it was windy and really cold). But I did sash the trail cam on the set up and it caught this photo of me adjusting the tray.

The trail cam also caught these little cuties checking out the setup later that night.

Honestly, they are probably there every night…I just haven’t had the trail cam set up there in ages. (But the high volume of deer poop validates this theory.)

I just love there’s a whole other world that happens out there at night

It’s been a full week now since the little feeder’s been up. The wind blew the tray out in the first 24 hours (not surprise) so I wired it in place. I did have to pick all the peanuts and the three trinkets out of the corn field. The camera hasn’t picked up any crow action yet, and all the trinkets are still there. I did see the murder fly over it today though.

But the camera did pick up something yesterday….

THIS BLUEBIRD! And actually there’s another one in the first row of corn stubble too. This was really fun to see. And a good reminder I needed to move the bluebird houses because they are too close to the house and the house sparrows really bully the bluebirds.

So…anyone wanna place bets on when the crows will show? Any tips on how to get the crows to come? What else do I need to know?

I’ll keep you posted.

• Listening: Radiolab, Black Box (the one about butterflies turning to goo)

• Reading: Trick Mirror: Reflections on Self-Delusion, Jia Tolentino

• Watching: Taylor Tomlinson, Prodigal Daughter

• Noticing: That there are not any crows

• Tidbit: It is wild just how much junk food you can buy at Menards. (Totally speaking from experience.)

May I be visited by the crows, and may you if you want too,
🐦‍⬛vanessa