I’m noticing the crows more recently. I think I’m looking up more to gauge how the slow green spread of spring takes the branches overhead; I’ve been feeding them, too, as it gets light enough to bring my dinner out for walks again. I’ve obviously been googling tips for getting crows to recognise you faster and about how their vocalisations work (spoiler: they vary massively and we don’t have a good sense for what even basic caw combos mean, only some clues about how they structure ideas), but I’m also enjoying watching them watch me, testing how close they’ll come, giving them soft little cues before I toss a handful of peanuts or cat food. the magpies are bolder but the crows seem cleverer – they feel like they’re collectively working me out.
I found a dead one in a bush yesterday – I noticed her because I thought the skull was an egg gleaming out of the brambles and wanted a closer look, only to find that what I’d thought was a nest was actually a tangle of leftover pinfeathers and sinewy bits and ribs. I’ve never gotten a go at the aesthetic natural burial vibe so I gathered some flowers for her and decided I’d check in a few weeks to see if the skull’s usable, which made me think about where animals sit in the green space where I’m developing my practice. we’ve all had a bit of a ~this bird is a sign moment and/or deity association, which I enjoy (I’ve pulled Death a bunch this week so it didn’t feel like, not on theme), but it made me consider how I was thinking about the crows I’m making friends with – certainly they’re part of the magical fabric of the space, but they feel like a collective to me of creatures with their own magical pull and influence, of a distinctive current rather than a messenger/representative/symbol of some deeper power. taking a moment with the dead crow felt more like them letting me into a more intimate part of their space than an individual encounter.
there are a few creatures on the heath that do have their own unique magical presence – there’s a fox who always collects offerings right after we leave them by the same tree at night, and sometimes comes very close to peer pointedly at us – but that feels a bit different, more supernatural TM, to whatever neighbourly thing I’ve got going on with the crows. lot of parsing how I think about spirit vs magic vs divinity right now, and where those things choose to overlap.
