This is a fascinating story. I love crows and this story illustrates why. My mother loves them, too. She is 84 years old and lives near Greenfield, MA. She feeds a crow family of about six during the winters. The other morning, she found a bag of walnuts in the cupboard. Not remembering how old they were, she threw them out under the bird feeders for the squirrels. Grammie feeds everybody. Then she proceeded to throw bread out for the crows, who, as usual, were waiting.
My mother watched, as she always does, as the crows ate their breakfast. Customarily, after their breakfast of bread and scraps, they retreat to the woods. Today, they did not. One of them swooped down and picked up a walnut, then made for the road at the end of the driveway. The rest of the gang followed, sitting in the trees at roadside, commenting and offering encouragement. The crow with the walnut dropped it in the road and flew back to sit with the others. All was quiet. Then a car came by, driving over the walnut and cracking it. The crow family descended, picking up and eating the scattered nut meat. The crow who had taken the walnut went back for another.
And so it continued. If a car came by and failed to crack the nut, they waited until one did. Then they would swoop down, gobble up the meat, and go for another nut. My mother watched for an hour, mesmerized.
As I said, I love crows
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