First day!

Welcome to my blog, whoever you are! This is basically where I plan to keep track of my progress befriending the neighborhood crows, as well as any interesting crow-related resources I find along the way. I recently became fixated on crows and wanted to learn more about them as a species, having read about the scope of their intelligence, as evidenced in the way they obtain their food and even bring people small trinkets as tokens of thanks/acknowledgement for their ongoing feedings. I tried birdwatching before and will probably feed the songbirds again in the Spring (once I get a decent bird feeder that does not scatter seed all over the stone patio); for now, though, I'm interested in tracking what I notice about the nearby crows and observing their behavior, for what it's worth! 

Today was my first day feeding them - I had purchased a 5-lb. bag of unsalted roasted peanuts in-the-shell from Shoprite, though I'll probably try and see if there are better deals at Costco and the like if this pans out. I went out at around 9:30 this morning with the open bag in my arms and scattered peanuts halfway down the walkway to our door, as well as tossing some openly into the grass, making clicking noises all the while. (This was after having observed a single crow in the vicinity, which had flown away from my neighbors' lawn.) I walked back inside and, while pouring peanuts into Ziploc bags to keep them fresh, glanced out the front door and saw a crow walking around on my lawn in the distance cautiously. It got closer and one of its buddies flew up next to it. I could sense the apprehension and later closed the door so they wouldn't see me creeping. 

I did peek through the peephole and saw both crows eventually make their way to the walkway, feeding on the peanuts there and on the lawn. I didn't linger, but I sat on the couch and couldn't help grinning at the cawing noises growing louder and louder outside. There was quite a racket out there, in the trees! By early afternoon, it appeared at least the walkway peanuts were gone, not sure about all the others. I'll be trying again tomorrow, same time - maybe there will be a crow or two waiting for me?