Tuesday 22 October 2013

Pizza...with a side of mouse!

My two crows now wait for me every morning at work to feed them. Woe betide me if I forget as they sit up in the trees or on the roof of the building and watch me with their beady eyes. The female is quite timid and flies away if I walk towards her but the male is quite brazen and will happily swoop down and grab his breakfast if I'm only a few feet away.

This morning, Archie (I'm assuming it was him, may be wrong!) left us two mice on the driveway. They were quite intact so I gingerly picked them up and took them in to feed the crows who just love a tasty mousey morsel! I know it sounds a bit horrible but they would only be thrown into the bin so at least they gave their lives to feed another creature! It's the ultimate recycling! The cats sometimes eat the mice (there's been half a mouse lying outside our garage door for a couple of days now and I am amazed I never stepped in it before now!) but most times they just leave the poor things as a present to be stepped in or squashed by the cars!

I also had some pizza crusts that Mikey left from the night before so they had a very varied breakfast this morning. Within seconds the male crow had flown down and picked up both mice in his beak. He then flew off somewhere with them, presumably to hide them for later. I'd noticed him doing this the other day when he hid some scraps I'd put out under a tuft of grass he'd pulled up. So clever!

With winter just around the corner I will be stepping up the feeding so that they survive the colder weather. They are joined by a pair of magpies and the robin is still flitting about in the trees and appreciating the bread I put out for him!

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