Song for Jasmine

This spring, we had the inescapable feeling that we were being watched. Somewhere nearby, we felt, someone was keeping their eye on us.

Sure enough, we were being spied on by this magpie. He’s watching us to see when we put out peanuts on the garden wall. As soon as we do, the moment we turn our backs to walk back indoors, he comes down, takes one, and flies off with it. He has to be quick, because he is not the only one who knows about the peanuts. Someone else knew about them first.

We first put out peanuts for a crow that started visiting us in late winter. He took an interest in our garden when he saw the peanuts we were putting out for the birds. He would perch on the fence, looking in, trying to summon up the courage to come into the small, enclosed space. Sometimes he would come down and take one. Often, he was too wary to actually come down, so missed out on a treat.

We noticed that the crow has a damaged leg. He hobbles on it and is clearly somewhat handicapped, which we think may have made him more shy and cautious than he would otherwise be. So to make things easier for him, we put the peanuts on the corner of the garden wall, a more exposed place where he would feel safer coming to get them. He would fly to the fence, take a look around, then hop down to the wall and take some nuts.

He soon learned that if there weren’t any peanuts there, we could be trained to put some out for him. All he had to do was come to the fence, make sure that we knew he was there, then retreat to safety while we came out into the garden. He would watch us through the window, sometimes calling out to get our attention, and only fly off when he saw us get up. Not stupid, this bird!

For a while, the crow had things to himself. Free peanuts for breakfast, and through the day whenever he wanted them. Ahh, the good life! Eventually, however, the magpies, nesting nearby, spotted what was happening, and came to get in on the act. After that things got really interesting, watching how the birds behaved. The magpies would watch the crow come for his first peanut, and as soon as he left, they would come down and help themselves to as many of the remaining nuts as possible. From there, things just escalated.

The crow would often eat his first peanut there on the wall, with the magpies sitting just a beak-length away. The crow is bigger, so can keep the two magpies at bay. After his first peanut, he would pick up two more in his beak, and fly off to enjoy them at leisure. The magpies then came in for the rest.

Then the magpies chicks fledged, two of them, making four magpies in the family team. The crow had to be quicker coming in, and also tried to be more discrete. Sometimes he could get most of the nuts before the magpies spotted him from the trees, but if he was slow off the mark, the magpies would take the lot very quickly.

Eventually he took to sitting on the roof of the barn at dawn, watching for me to open the doors to the terrace and put out the first peanuts of the day. Then he’d be in like a shot, the moment I turned round to walk away. If the magpies weren’t around, he’d take his first peanut away and hide it in the nearby bushes, then come back for more. If the magpies got there before him, they too would often take some away to hide, and often in the same bushes! There must be quite a stash of them there by now, if they haven’t forgotten about them. Or maybe they’ve all been found by our nightly hedgehog visitors, they doubtless patrol those bushes too.

Since the weather warmed up, over a month ago, our crow has stopped coming. We haven’t seen him around for a while now, he’s probably moved on to the fields for more usual fare. The magpies came for a while longer, especially the youngsters, but now we don’t see any of them very often. It’s been a real treat to see the young magpies growing up, steadily becoming more confident and adept, just like human children.

I expect that, come winter, our magpies and our crow will be back. I hope so, they’ve made life a lot more interesting around here. It’s amazing how smart they are, in the ways that they figure out how to keep ahead of the competition, and in the ways that they manage to train us to do their bidding.

In case anyone is worried that we may be taming these birds, we’re not. They remain as wary as ever of people, and won’t stay anywhere near when we’re outside. Our role is strictly that of peanut-providers, and we know our place!

Not that this crow is the first bird to train us, oh no. Jasmine, our African Grey, had us trained long ago. I remember when she first said “Some apple, Jasmine”. She was just beginning to learn the phrases we used, and to associate them with actions in the real world. I turned around in surprise when she said this, only to see her looking straight at me to see if those words meant what she thought they meant. They did, and she got her apple!

(Possibly) related posts:

1. Bird feeders
2. High-rise House Martins
3. Little feet in the snow
4. Goldfinches
5. HR 669, A Threat to Your Pet

Tags: Jasmine, Birds, Crow, Magpie

Posted by Tony on Friday, August 6th, 2010 at 21:13 in Jasmine, Birds. You can follow any responses to this entry here via RSS 2.0. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.