Totally Stalkerish
“You over there, I see you. You and your click click black shiny eye thing can come closer. Listen up; I’ve got something to tell you. I have a message. I’ve been watching for you,” says the crow.
I thought I heard one call out earlier, couldn’t see it, must have imagined it. Stalking slowly closer with my camera, I’m clicking away. I can’t believe this. There’s a crow! I must get photos. Blasted lens, macro lens, wrong lens, on so much this depends. No nuts that aren’t nuts, no tasty treats to entice this feathered one.
Instead, I ask if it will stay and let me photograph it. I’m thinking, please, please, please stay crow.
“Are you listening to the message?” asks crow.
”Yes I hear you.”
It’s cawing like crazy while facing east. I get the message. I’ll think about that later on. I’m more than a little entranced at seeing a crow and stalking it down for photo proof.
All this talk of crows for months with @corvidae has fed my fixation with crows and ravens. Definitely no ravens here, wrong environment. There are crows, but I was convinced that they weren't around anywhere close to me, since I never see them. I was wrong @corvidae. I’m cawing about photo proof, some decent shots of a crow. First ever! I think the crows got wind of my wishes. One came to visit me. It made my day. These are the kind of moments in the run of a day that I treasure.
“You got the message. My job is done”, says crow as it positions itself to jump down from the tombstone.
I’m obsessed. I want to take more photos and to get even closer. Stupid macro lens. I don’t dare change the lens, the crow might go. I ask if crow will hang around and pose for more photos.
“Let me see…..”
“Okay, I’ll stay here for a short while and pose for you, given the circumstances”, says crow.
Crow looks off and says, “I’ll walk around here and eat seeds I find while you take photos.”
Thanking crow, I go bonkers with the camera. Edging closer, clicking non-stop, eye melded with the lens, I took a ridiculous number of photos in my excitement.
How stalkerish can I be? How near will it allow me? I kept edging ever closer to get better shots. Crow kept on searching for edibles in the grass.
Oh those feathers! The iridescence! I’d never studied a crow’s feathers up close before. So beautiful.
“I think I’ve found something”, says crow, beak diving in.
What on earth has crow seized upon? It looked like a dried up crusty thing better left decaying on the ground.
“Are you going to eat that?”, I ask.
“What would you know? It’s not like you brought any food with you. What happened to that bag of nuts you always carry?”, asks crow.
“This isn’t an all day trip I have to pack food for crow.”
“Now you have a reason for next time, since you know I’m here”, says crow.
Crow keeps searching for food. It's moving around giving a fine dancing display. Show off. Sure wish I could fly.
Score! Crow’s seized some kind of light green seeds of unknown origin. I get the feeling that all this display was an indulgence on crow’s part.
“I’m taking off now. You’ve got plenty of photos. Remember the message I gave you”, says crow.
I’m disappointed to see it go. Capturing photo proof is a treat though. I’m happy about finding a place where there are crows I can hang out with.
I went back a second time a week later, peanuts and cashews in tow thanks to @corvidae’s suggestions. Correct lens on camera. Ready to go crow.
No crows in sight. I kept walking. I called out to them to visit me with no words. I have goodies guys, come on, where are you? Nothing. Silence for the longest while. Then I hear some squawks.
I go into instant stalker mode, tracking the one I heard by sound. It’s on the other side of the cemetery. I walk that way. I see it on the grass. I’m not close. It spies me and takes flight. I see a second crow fly out of a tree from nearby that disappears into the trees just as quick. The first crow lands high up in an old maple tree. So there are at least two hanging out here.
Nothing would entice crow out of the tree, so I sat down under the tree and watched. Crow took flight again. I stalked it to another area of the cemetery still hoping to get photos. It’s pecking away at something on the ground. I’m too far away. It spies me and squawks, taking off in flight. I hung around for a while. Gone. For now.
Oddly, there’s a memorial marker that is a flat metal bird feeder, designed so squirrels and the like can’t raid it. I left my nut offerings to the crows there. I’ll be patient. I’ll be back again. I’ll always have crow treats with me now.CROWMATION
All photos taken by Nine with a Pentax digital 35mm camera and 90mm Tamron macro lens. "Crowmation" is a compilation created in Photoshop.
What a stalker. Sheesh.
I need to speak with the crow if he/she would want to file for a restraining order 😅
!discovery 30
😂 That's hilarious! I cite the conversations with @corvidae for my stalker routine. I've been influenced. Also, I'll note that I have some years of experience with criminal law. 😉🤪
Thanks @stevenson7!
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Hehe, at first I thought I had clicked into an @corvidae post. You got some splendid shots even though it looked as if he/she was toying with you. Not showing the next time was obviously some kind of test!
Thanks @meesterboom! First time I ever got decent shots of any bird. All the inspiration for this is due to @corvidae, she's mastered all this, such beautiful work that inspires.
Crows are highly intelligent, as I found out years ago, so I have a great deal of respect for them. This one was eating some type of green seed, from a tiny shrub I think.
Ha, yes, I figured the second time I wouldn't be so lucky, so only went with the wish and see what happens mindset. They have a trickster quality. Probably laughing at me, silly human stuck on the ground like that, lol.
She has indeed mastered it, I have never seen such splendid and creative crow mcjiggery!
They are indeed clever and trickstery. I see a couple of them roundabouts my house and they always have an air of mischief about them!
LOL, is that the Irish or the Scottish influence in that phrase?
Wouldn't it be a good idea to feed those crows nearby? They have a veyr low carbon poop emission (as opposed to pigeons). They are mischievous. My mother had a habit of chasing them away to give the other birds space. For years, they had hummingbirds (among other birds) coming in droves, like 30 or more always around. I took my cat to visit once. He'd sit outside watching them and I'm sure wishing while they'd dive bomb him and be gone so fast he wasn't even able to jump at them.
I think it is a splendid combination of the two!
I have fed them occasionally. The only problem is that there are a multitude of other bird creatures about which seem to be encouraged by the feeding so we end up with all sorts in our garden and roundabouts
Haha, combo deal, the two fit well in one.
A multitude of other bird creatures? Anything unusual, like say a baby dragon? I would think your garden must be quite sought after by winged whirly birdy bustling about for tasty treats.
Speaking of your garden. I'm a little fixated on the bamboo, so I had a second look at that guy's bamboo garden. It's reduced in size by half now. Along the side of his property where it is, there's a chain link fence. I was taking some photos of the bamboo to compare species (I'll show you a photo) and realized that it's crawled under and through the fence, with roots poking up into the park on the other side. LOL! Invasive bamboo. I had to try and pull at a root to no avail, had no proper tools. I might bring some home and see if I can grow it. See what you've done? 😂
My daughter would be over the moon if we could attract a baby dragon!
It is a lovely thing to see grow! Hopefully the one he has is a good un. All you need is a rhizome, hehe.
Soon you will have a lovely bamboo baby!
😂 I'm picturing that whole scene. It'd be adorable. Maybe you could carve her a dragon? Time...yes....that again.
The bamboo he has looks very hearty. I couldn't get over the roots, wasn't what I anticipated. The beauty of rhizomes...ahhhh, love them. I've grown ginger root and tumeric root also. Leaves of ginger have a light citrus taste, no ginger flavour at all.
Heehee, yeah, I'm just going to have to try it out. I'll let you know how it goes. Below are two pics I took of it. The roots coming up and going back down in the ground, green like that, with shoots growing off of them is so interesting and rather cool.
Cor blimey, look at that beast. Its a finger wide! A good thickness. It does look very hearty.
I have never actually seen the roots before, I have only read that you can chop off the rhizomes and propagate that way. It looks like that one could grow into a monster.
I am half jealous! Even though I have loads of bamboo.
Although my big monster black one is suffering from yellowing leaves and Iam worrying that it might be approaching the relams of death which would make me terrible sad
😂 It's a worthy beastie. I was impressed.
The next time I'm in that park I'll be equipped with what I take for foraging and hack off a chunk, one with shoots (haha). No one will care, the thing wants to take over. I was just so surprised at the roots. I thought you'd have seen them. I did some reading to learn more, soil type, conditions it likes, etc. There are so many species!
I think you're hooked on bamboo. Besides being so cool, I tend to make use of it for various things, like all my polishing sticks for carving.
Awww, that's not a happy thought. I didn't know they die off. Maybe it just needs something altered in it's environment.
Most people would probably think you were doing a service by pruning the big taking over mofof back somewhat.
I probably need to sacrifice something to the elder gods in the shade of its black canes. That oughtta work ;O)
That's a good point, saves the city crew from digging it out.
They seem to like blood sacrifices, so maybe if you shed some of yours that will be appeasement enough for the elder gods, lol. I see that elder gods seems to come from H.P. Lovecraft. Have you read him? I haven't read his books but I have looked at illustrations closely.
When I was younger I read a lot of his stuff, teenage'y years I think. It has forever influenced me! I love the illustrations too. Anything Elder gods'ish gets my juices flowing!
I really do have to read his books. The illustrations are so interesting and well done.
Sounds Vikingish, bet you got some of that blood running in those veins.
I can only hope that the blood is running in these veins! It would explain a lot, lol!
From all your posts, there's this kind of subtle thread that runs through that is rather Vikingish. Some of those facial expressions in your cover images, I imagine you striking fear into the hearts of enemies in battle, scorching them on the spot with a laser gaze. 😁
I do do a good battle shout! But it is more likely they would piss themselves laughing at my fierce face because it looks funny :OD
If you didn't do a good shout, I'd be shocked.
Death by laughter, excellent strategy!
That strategy has served me well throughout my entire life!
It's a great way to go, laughing to death. You're doing a grand service with that approach.
I live to serve!! 🤣
LOL! How about serve to live?
I am no master, but thank you. Just eternally inquisitive and very much in love.
A lot of your photos are quite breathtaking, at least to my eyes and of very high caliber in my opinion.
I totally love that. Beautiful. I completely get it.
Thank you!! I try to let the love shine through.
Love shines though singing out loudly in all those photos.
😊
😊
Your story and pictures were really amazing 😍🤩 keep it up dear ✅
Thank you so much @sommylove! I don't often do little stories like this, they kind of have to flow or I can't write them, lol.
You are welcome My Dear
It really flowed 🥰💃
Oh thanks again! It's really great to hear that, since I'm never sure what I'm writing with this kind of thing and criticize it in my head quite a bit.
It's really nice my dear Thumps up 👎
Thanks so much @sommylove!
Welcome 😁
😁
Hooray!!!
It takes a while for them to get used to you. Make sure they see you put down food for them and then walk far away, it's a good way to start. Eventually they will recognize that you are a food source, and then as time goes by recognize that you are someone worth spending time with.
I think your buddy is a juvenile, born last year, judging by the bronzed wing tips.
🖤!
Thanks @corvidae! This only happened because of being inspired by you and what you create, so thanks for that too.
I figure it will take a while, kind of expecting that. Thanks for those tips, really good to know. This is why I ask the Crow Lady, who knows the secrets of the crow.
I was wondering about that. Thanks. Always so interesting to me. I suspect there are more than two in that cemetery, seems they have a home somewhere in there. I've pinpointed the general area. So many other things happy to eat whatever, so I'll have to be patient. 😂
I wonder, it seems like your city doesn't have an obviously huge crow population, so this family could have a pretty big territory, making them harder to spot. Here it's like one or two city blocks but that's because we have hundreds per neighborhood.
I'm so glad you're in crow club now!
Without giving away my actual location, lol, it's the specific area I live in that is crow deprived, so you'd be right on the harder to spot aspect. Wow, hundreds per neighbourhood!
Thanks, so am I, effort pays off! 😆
Wow, just stunning. It seems to be like a bird in Ghana, preparing to fly away. Thank you for sharing @nineclaws .
Thank you @mcsamm, really glad you enjoyed seeing my first decent photos of a bird!
That crow's got an exciting life 😂
Love this picture:
Seems like it's speaking straight from its soul... Those eyes, like a Demon's Soul (I'm playing a game called Demon's Souls !LOL)
😂 Thanks @trippymane! I think that photo caught it's inner eyelid closing, can't recall the name of the inner eyelid.
You know these games live in your mind forever after, right?
Absolutely, just like all the books and media we consume :)
It may sound like a bad thing from the name but it's actually a good game, anyway I won't bore you with it 😂
😂😂😂 Score! Absolutely. Now you know why I limit everything I can as much as I can.
The game doesn't sound like a bad game. I've played games, enough of them to know that I cannot keep my attention on any of them, same as with tv and movies. I tend to space out and go elsewhere in my mind. For whatever reason, this doesn't happen when I'm reading books.
Ahah yes absolutely, too much shit everywhere 🤣
Those games are very very difficult, it's all about reflexes and right timing, I can't play too much at them because of how difficult they are but for those few hours I play I can really focus only on that, it may be crazy but when I find a good game it's like I find a good book, I can get fully immersed in it and just focus with my mind on that, feels like some sort of meditation 😂
Wonderful stuff! This also reminds me that I should read more books! !LOL
Always. I walked by some restaurant last week that had a pile of poop that looks like the emoji, with a face, all that, about the size of a person, located at the front door of their restaurant, which was named some poop name that I can't recall now. My thoughts were......poop and food are now a thing? That's supposed to make you want to eat there? A huge pile of smiling poop at the front door greeting you is better than an appetizer? 🤣🤣🤣
Re the games....my brain seems to be wired differently, or so I've noticed since I was a child. Things like tv, movies, video games, basically anything on a screen, I can't focus on it for too long before mentally checking out and going somewhere else in my mind, thinking of other things. As a child, I couldn't sit and watch tv without having a book, reading the book while the tv was on, only half listening to the tv, and glancing at it briefly from time to time. So I think it has something to do with how my brain is wired in terms of how it responds to stimuli on a screen, all that kind of technology. No idea why. It's impossible to explain it to others.
It's putting you into an alpha brain wave state, which is a state of high suggestibility...in other words, a form of hypnosis.