To be scared that I’m still marked by the crows?

[ChoccyOrangeYum]

A couple of years ago I walked the dog on a local field. I know nothing about birds but I was later told it was their breeding season.

Anyway we must have got too close to their nests as they suddenly started flying around irrationally, making a hell of a racket screaming etc and then started dive bombing the dog. The dog thought this was fun so started chasing the crows. All hell broke loose basically and we were suddenly surrounded by crows going mental. We made a quick exit!!

I left it a few days then took the dog back on the field but after speaking to locals about the crows I stayed away from the back of the field (where they’re breeding) and kept dog in lead. As soon as we stepped on the field the noise started up again and the crows appeared and started dive bombing again! There was someone else on the field with a dog who the crows were totally ignoring!

We left and after a bit of research I found that crows remember faces and don’t forgive easily 😬 so we didn’t go back on.

A whole year later we went back on assuming the old crows won’t be there anymore but we were on there 5 minutes before it all started again. These birds are not bothering anyone else on the field, just me!!

Anyway my neighbour has suggested we go for a walk in the field tomorrow morning but I’m shit scared of the birds. Will they still go for me if I don’t have the dog?! Will they ever move on from the incident 2 years ago or am I banned from the field for life?!

TBH that is just a slight variation of my zombie apocalypse plan.

Throw DCat 1 at any zombies going.... then run.

(DCat is a Tortie. It would be her Best. Day. Ever).

But wouldn't your Dcat become a Dzombiecat??

Oh no, she hasn't come back!

I'm not even bothering with the bin thread, this has got me so hooked.
And I never ignore a wheelie bin thread (especially after a night of high winds)...

This is not an exaggeration, OP. Crows have long lives, a complex social hierarchy and can and do warn each other and younger generations about things both good and bad.

You could write a letter of apology . . .

Seriously, cheese and bacon should do it - both are high value foodstuffs from a crow's perspective.

I love crows myself - in fact all the corvids except magpies - but I have no illusions about them. They can be ferocious and my great fear is that I will slip and fall early one morning near our local rookery, and be covered with a stabby blanket of carrion eaters before I could regain my feet.

It's not just crows and magpies. Swans are terrifying too - there were a couple of swans on the lake near us who used to hiss and snap when I walked over the bridge with my dog - she has never don't anything to them but we live in a very dog heavy area so possible a similar looking dog had.

Anyway the swans had 5 babies in the spring and I saw another dog paddling at the edge of the lake - again not near the nest or the swans but the mum and dad swans surrounded the dog with their wings and I thought they were going to drown the dog! It was terrifying to watch!! The owner of the dog was screaming as she couldn't do anything as the swans were around the dog and it was in the water near a load of reeds - a big bloke appeared and did a loud whistle which seemed to scare them off though and the woman could then get her dog out! Certainly never let my dog offlead near any lakes where there might be swans since witnessing that.

Dcat replies - 'Nope'. [casually licks paws and whiskers free of blood and gore].

Your dad sounds ace, love it.

I’m seriously concerned about OP now.
What if the crows have her surrounded and she can’t escape? How will we send help? We don’t know where she is!!

@MumofSpud one of these

Oh I'd forgotten that!

Yes, OP - hard boiled eggs are popular, too. I'm sure they'd accept raw ones, but I give hard-boiled.

Oh that's a relief 🤣

If she's anything like my childhood cat, you wouldn't be able to tell the difference. Mine had had an argument with a moving vehicle as a kitten and the vet did his best to get her left eye back in and reconnect the jaw, but what you ended up with was a tiny black cat with eyes pointing in different directions, a distinct underbite rather like a Border Terrier and a complete absence of fear as she'd stared Death down and it had failed to get her, so made the subsequent 17 years of her full and happy life full of attempts to score the largest possible and most interesting prey.

Pigeon Day was memorable, but Tortoise Day was ridiculous.

Awwww what a wee (murdering) princess 😻

Well Mn, this thread had been the best one I've read for years 😂

@ChoccyOrangeYum please let us know you’re ok before we send out a search party, accompanied by trained guard geese and wearing 💂🏻‍♀️

@Lwrenagain yes, it's been a fun distraction on the first day of the year. Almost as good as the year MNetters did a run on Argos for a raven decoration at Halloween. Well worth a read if you need to continue your crow/raven fix now that OP has succumbed to the black, feathery overlords

Do we assume the crows got OP?!

All my life I have been nervous when near birds and that includes the humble caged budgie 😏 but until last night I had no knowledge of the intelligence of corvids.

They now have my absolute respect! I am surrounded by trees and leafy avenues which house thousands of birds. I can hear seagulls shouting as I write. Never again will I mutter swear words at those pesky creatures.

This is the best thread I have been fixated on for as long as I have been on this site.
🐤🐤🐦🐦🐤🐤

I'm too invested in this thread I need to know what happens. Come back OP!!!
this needs to go in classics. Unless of course the crows won

We are not the problem...

Did you make it back OP???

Where are you OP?

You are not weird! They're fabulous!

Lots of different "caws" too.

I feed them on a morning, and they have one keeping "toot" from before daybreak, and s/he yells for the others when I go out. The trees are full of them in seconds.

I recon the op has been taken prisoner.