My Crow Friend

 I can hear it (her? him? unknown, will use a neutral pronoun) messing around in the water dish on the back deck.  I walk to the kitchen and peek out the back door, hiding myself as much as I can.  It's a youngish crow, I think, given that it's rather slim.  And likes to play.  Not a baby, maybe a yearling?

I have two bird baths in my yard and several years ago I read something about bees and other insects needing a shallow water dish during the summer.  I brought out a shallow glass pie dish and put in a selection of pretty rocks and filled it with water.  Bees do come for a drink, and flies and other insects (sure, go ahead and have a drink vermin), and I've seen some little wrens and sparrows popping by too.  But this summer, my crow friend has claimed this dish for its own.

When I'm reading the paper I can hear it clunking around, rearranging the rocks in the dish.  Besides the rocks, I also put a crystal bunny figure in there - for the whimsey, I guess.  Sometimes the crow knocks the bunny down during the rearranging session.  A few weeks ago I decided that I wanted to give it a present.  I put a small, nearly clear, polished piece of agate in the dish next to the bunny.

The small stone got moved around a lot during the morning session.  Then I found it on the deck railing.  After that I found it on the ground below a couple of times.  I kept putting it back in the dish, the crow kept moving it around.

One day, I couldn't find the small stone at all.  I believe the crow carried it away.  But!  But, in its place was a small reddish stone that I had never seen before!  It brought me a stone!  It's a trade, I guess, but it feels like a gift.

Since then I have put a marble in the dish a few times.  Those disappear in a day.  I hope that there is a nest filled with marbles and shiny rocks somewhere nearby.  

** Hi Friends!  Sorry it's been so long.  Life getting all lifey - as the kids say.  Lol.