“‘God created … every winged bird according to its kind’, by which Genesis 1:21 mainly meant #crows & #ravens, because what other #birds could you possibly want?” — this 13th century artist, apparently.
One for @ct_bergstrom
' The researchers say that the birds' counting skills are like those of human toddlers, who often count based upon vocalizations of numbers rather than using numbers themselves. '
"These #Crows have counting skills previously only seen in people
"The #Corvids are the first animals other than humans known to produce a deliberate number of calls on command....
"...The researchers also... could` predict the upcoming number of crow calls based on the sound of the first call, suggesting that the birds planned the number of calls in advance..."
Mini #CrowUpdate : I got to spend some time with the family tonight after work (the first time in a few days). Everybody seems to be doing fine. Junior can more or less fly now. But it's still scared/intrigued by me and by the fact that Mom and Dad are cool with me.
Impossible to take a picture of the three of them, so it's only Mom and Junior and not even on the same shot.
Today is Tuesday, which means I spent a good chunk of the day at home, which means... #CrowUpdate and a very special one, entirely focused on Baby Crow!!!
I saw it not once, not twice, but three times today!
First, while giving peanuts to Mom, I heard him in the tree nearby. It stayed this way for a little while. I'm not sure if it wanted to jump to the branch close by or if it was looking at Mom collecting the peanuts. Maybe both?
A bit later, Dad was walking on the ground, but acting a little weird. I wondered why, so I went and... lo and behold, baby was on the ground too!!! One of its first times.
It was so cute, grabbing a bunch of things with its beak (leaves, rocks, etc.) basically discovering the world.
I find it a bit skinny. (maybe that's why the parents have been coming to see me for peanuts a lot these days?)
(sorry for the picture quality, I didn't want to get too close)
Baby is out of the nest, finally.
However, while the picture is dark, its beak and eye are darker than if it had just come out, so I suspect it's been in and out of the nest for a few days probably (although, it's surprising I didn't notice it) or it just stayed in the nest longer than usual (maybe)
Trying out two of the Sailor de Mannen fude nib, 45 degrees and 55 degrees. 55 degrees is very smooth, almost too smooth and I didn't like the Pelikan Moonstone. I enjoyed the 45 degrees nib, not too scratchy or thick. Noodler red black ink is nice too.
Mr. Crow says "good morning" so mini #CrowUpdate :
Both Mr. and Ms. Crow have been extremely friendly this morning (I'm working from home today) they approached me closer than before (They didn't even fly away when I exited the house and they happened to be near the door.) Maybe the last remnant of fear they had about me vanished when I helped them chase the cat in the park two days ago?
Baby is still hanging out in the nest, I caught a glimpse of it.
#CrowUpdate When was the last one? More than a week probably. Here is the thing, the weather being nicer, there are almost always people in the park at the moment, so it's rarely quiet enough for the #crows to come down. The last time I spent some sort of time with Mr. Crow was about a week ago, and he was not too keen on approaching me. And also, it's a very busy and stressful time for the crows too, probably the busiest and most stressful time of the year.
Also cats. While they can't climb that high, the babies are going to get out of the nest any day now (last year was the first week of May if I remember well) and crow fledglings leave the nest BEFORE being able to fly. It's a weird thing and probably part of natural selection: they need to count on more than just their wings to survive (this is how Mr. Crow still manages to survive in his condition, I guess) but of course cats represent a grave danger then, (⤵️ 🧵 )