Okay, so I mentioned in another thread how I love animals and sometimes rescue them and just had a crazy experience this week, so I thought I would kick off a new thread with that story and use this to share other stories.
A crow got into my screened patio one morning and my dogs were chasing him around before I realized what was going on, and by the time I got to him, he was a little hurt. I leave one of the doors slightly open so the dogs can come and go, so its not uncommon for animals to find their way in. I've had everything from snakes in the pool to bats hanging from the patio ceiling. I used to leave food out for a raccoon that lived in the backyard out there too until roof rats started showing up.
Anyway - So here is the crow when I caught him.
I tried to let him go but he couldn't fly high enough to even get up on the fence. We have a lot of hawks in the neighborhood and I was certain they would get him if my dogs or neighbor's dogs didn't, so I decide to put him in one of my spare cages and see if he could recover.
And this is where the story starts blowing me away. I am working from home now, and put the bird cage on the kitchen table where I am set up so I could watch him, and I was surprised how chill he was. After awhile he would even let me hold him while I was checking for injuries. After a couple of hours I took a shot at putting him on my shoulder while I worked and sure enough, sat there pretty content for a couple of hours.
The craziest thing was that when he was done being handled or wanted to be by himself, he didn't try to fly off around the house in a panic or even run away -
he climbed back into his cage. I only had him for a few hours at this point, yet he seemed to understand that the cage was his, and this was where he felt safe. He also spent some time on top of the cage just checking out my house. I also could walk out of the kitchen and back in and he would just site there. I named him Eddie after Edgar Allen Poe.
I offered him a variety of food, but the only thing I found that he liked was scrambled eggs, most of which he ate right out of my hand. For a species that hang outside McDonalds and Walmart, this guy was pretty picky.
I tried to release him 2 more times that day, the last being in the evening, but he couldn't fly, and when he hopped into the bushes to hide I decided to keep him overnight. I covered up his cage and even went to bed early to make sure he had a full night sleep.
In the morning he had the same demeanor, I offered him more food and he was big on the scrambled eggs, sunflower seeds, and OJ. He drank the OJ from a spoon.
He also was more independent, seemed stronger, and wasn't crazy about being held, even though he was totally fine being in close proximity to me. He then made a decent attempt to fly across the kitchen, so I decided to try releasing him again, so took him in the backyard and opened my hands and watched him gingerly get airborne and then fly up to a tree. Success!
Had I not taken pictures, I doubt anyone would believe how cool he was. At the time I thought, 'this is pretty interesting' but it didn't really hit me until he was gone. Crows are very intelligent but this one was also incredibly trusting. It could have been he realized I wasn't going to eat him, he needed some time to heal, and just accepted my help. The most stunning thing to me was how when he wanted to be alone, that he - on his own - when back into the cage I was keeping him in. I never closed the door to the cage until nighttime, yet he never tried to get out of it. He just some how realized that was 'his space' and used it. I just find that absolutely amazing for a wild animal to do.
Anyway, I have some other stories I will post, and will use this thread to post about future stories. I still want to show you guys what I do with Wasps, and they are starting to build nests around here now, so hopefully they build a big one.