Editor,
The story of the rescue of Lucky the baby Saw-Whet Owl was heart-warming.
In these days of Donald Trump and “Post-Truth,” stories like this remind me of what is good about human beings.
I just want to add another perspective on the crows’ actions. I am not an expert on birds but I love them and I do everything I can to learn from the experts about them.
So, here is another perspective:
1. This time of year sadly is a time when many baby birds become food for other birds, not only crows but also robins for example.
2. One of the most feared enemies of crows are owls, particularly the Great Horned Owl. When you hear crows mobbing in the woods, there is a good likelihood that an owl has found one of their nests and the crows know that if they do not chase the owl away, it will return at night to steal their babies. The crows actually do a good service — when they mob like that, they are alerting all the other birds and small mammals in the forest that a predator, like a fox or hawk or owl, is in the neighbourhood.
3. And yes, a group of crows is known by the dramatic name of a “murder of crows.” But did you know that a group of falcons is called a “cast of falcons”? And groups of hummingbirds are known as a “shimmer of hummingbirds”? In flight, swans are called a “wedge of swans”. And there are also “murmurations” of starlings and those groups of robins on your lawn, well they are called “rounds of robins.”
Thank you for the story of the rescue of Lucky.
In this time, when people tend to focus on feeling superior to others, or feeling the need to lecture others, or feeling only despair and cynicism at the state of the world, people such as Gord who rescued Lucky and Tom who wrote the article and you who chose to publish it and, of course, the good people at the Northern Lights Wildlife Society remind us all that goodness and caring still exists in great amounts in the world.
Patou Lehoux
Telkwa