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?!

Holy cow-it’s been all day! They’ve done for her!

For info Murder Crow, do crows fly in the rain, or are they like bees and don't like it?
It's just that I have to go outside and I'm a bit worried about the parsnips but it's chucking it down, so hoping I can scamper without being heavily ambushed/lightly murdered.

I've got that feeling I had on Christmas day, when I'd bought a bit of a shit last minute present for someone, and hadn't factored in the possibility that they'd be opening it in front of me. They weren't supposed to do that before I made my getaway.

Anyone have one of those Halloween Crows that MNers bought a few years ago? 🐦‍⬛ OP should’ve glued one on her shoulder for protection.

Crow decoration classic

@NewtonPulsifer I linked to it earlier, that was ages ago now but still sticks in my mind.

There are fields behind my house, and a walking path that goes for some miles. My cat often follows when I take the dogs, and in the spring there are a couple of magpies who will follow from tree to tree chattering to each other. One day the cat followed me further than usual, and I noticed that the number of birds following us had increased. I dont know what prompted me to stop and look up, but a tree in front of us was completely full of magpies and crows - it felt like there must be at least 50 -100, all watching us. I was so worried about my cat I picked her up along with a stick, fully expecting a full on pecking attack. As soon as I did this, they all flew off. It was the freakiest thing that has happened on our walks.

Thinking of ordering this crow lamp now.

If @ChoccyOrangeYum did actually survive her walk this morning, she's got a good few more years of crow hatred ahead. Better get bulk-ordering monkey nuts and spreading them around.

https://theconversation.com/never-cross-a-crow-it-will-remember-your-face-2121#:~:text=%E2%80%9CPeople%20have%20suspected%20for%20a,the%20University%20of%20New%20England.

I used to work with birds at a wildlife hospital and the corvids were super-smart and definitely recognised people and adjusted their behaviour accordingly.

It wasn't a cassowary, was it?

They are big and very aggressib=ve - dangerous, in fact.

😦😧😩

Forgive me, Feathery Overlords!

I knew not what I did!

<grovels shamelessly>

That lamp is amazing, i'd love one🐦‍⬛

Holy shit, it was!! It was loose on a farm. I think I only survived because I played chicken with it and it got confused.

OP, are you okay? Killed by crows or now crowned as crow queen and no longer care for us humans?

We do not like the rain, however if we have an 'assignment' we will carry it out, rain or no rain.

Plus it makes our feathers look really shiny...

They fucking LOVE rain - and WIND - they RELISH a Force 9 gale and do joyous sky dances in it!

Here is an old geese thread while we wait

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/2737690-To-ask-if-anyone-keeps-geese-And-if-so-whats-their-fucking-problem

That lamp has been on my Amazon wishlist for ages! This might be the year I actually buy it, there's a branch/wall mounted version too.

Seletti do a whole range of their bird crow lamps. I expect the OP's house to be adorned with them if she ever returns.

https://www.seletti.it/uk/lighting/bird-lamp.html

@HundredMilesAnHour cheers, I know that's the originals, bit pricey for me unfortunately. Around £20 for fakes - I'm sure the thievery involved would amuse real corvids.

You were lucky!

The disembowell people on a whim!

Crows have very good memories. Also, they pass on these memories to their offspring and associates. I'd walk somewhere else, they will not forget for many years and will attack you. They are sentient rational beings and a dog is a predator on their young. They will react to your bringing a predator into the vicinity of their nests by making it clear you should leave.

"Pfft!

I've been attacked by geese loads of times. One stuck its head up my culottes and bit my backside (I picked it up by the neck and swung it round and threw it as far as I could- not far as I am a weed - but it didn't come back, the bastard!

Don’t some people have geese instead of guard dogs? Or did I dream that."

Can confirm. I know someone who lives alone and very remotely and keeps geese to let him know when walkers approach and keep them away from his house - it's a very pretty house and walkers sometimes wander in.

I'm never wearing culottes there ever again.

A murder of crows got me Googling and I came across this article in Country Life magazine about collective nouns for birds. How fabulous are these?? Whilst I love a murder of crows, I'm pretty keen on an asylum of cuckoos and a conspiracy of ravens too. 😍

We celebrate our favourite collective nouns for birds, from the weird and the wonderful to the most curious.
Variously idiosyncratic, intriguing and often unerringly apt in their descriptions of gatherings of birds, animals and people a damning of jurors, an incredulity of cuckolds — most of the collective nouns we use date back to the mid 15th century.

And here are some of our favourites:

• A wake of buzzards
• A confusion of chiffchaffs
• A chattering of choughs
• A commotion of coots
• A murder of crows
• An asylum of cuckoos
• A curfew of curlews
• A trembling of finches
• A swatting of flycatchers
• A prayer of godwits
• A crown of kingfishers
• A parcel of linnets
• A cast of merlins
• A conspiracy of ravens
• A worm of robins
• A parliament of rooks
• An exultation of skylarks
• A murmuration of starlings
• A hermitage of thrushes
• A volery of wagtails
• A museum of waxwings
• A chime of wrens
• An orchestra of avocets
• A mural of buntings
• A water dance of grebes
• A booby of nuthatches
• A quilt of eiders
• A mischief of magpies
• An aerie of eagles
• A wisdom of owls
• A quarrel of sparrows

I guess it wasn’t my time.

Thank you, vicious, yet dopey cassowary. 😬

Taking treats may placate them. My youngest studied animal behaviour at university and crows were her favourite part of research. They're so clever and apparently can recognise people even if they are wearing hats as a disguise. And they do share information with social groups. She still loves reading research about Corvidae

Lovely!

I knew some of these, but not all*. - can I add to your lovely list?

A zephyr of long-tailed tits (aka bumbarrels)

• though I had thought it was a parliament of owls (not rooks), rather than a wisdom]

Every day a schoolday on here.