Since the glorious days of Hitchcock, and even before that, crows have had a special place in every horror flick made by Hollywood. Some would even go as far to call them “messengers” although the good ‘ol carrier pigeon would still win THAT prize! Coming from India, a hotpot of cultures, there is a belief in the Hindu religion that your ancestors inhabit the body of crows and visit their loved ones on Mahalaya Amavasya (Pitru Paksha). Believe it or not, there are innumerable ways by which family members try to venerate the dead. My experiences of it come from what I have seen being done in my home, during the sad event of a loved one passing away. The dishes most loved by the departed would be prepared and served to these dark winged creatures supposedly harbouring their souls. This memory has remained because it was of the utmost importance we stay away, lest the crows get frightened. Served on a banana leaf, the food would be slowly eaten by the birds only after which we could begin lunch. Sometimes, the birds would leave the food untouched which was quite puzzling to a young seven-year-old. On those days we would not go hungry though, with lunch served after an hour of wait.
Today, as I looked outside and saw a crow sitting on the branch of a tree it took me back to those memories. It also reminded me of an old picture of a few crows that I had taken a couple of years back. It was one of my early pictures but I was highly impressed with my Nikon D5200 / 70–300mm lens (basic lens). The only reason behind me taking that shot on that day, was because I couldn’t find a single other bird! It was highly disappointing so I focussed that camera on the first creature that took off into the sky. The crow. An interesting bird, and there were a few things which I found strange and bewildering about its behaviour. Let me share a few of them with you. I am no scientist however, so I beg the reader correct me in the comments section below if I have gotten any facts wrong. With that said, let’s begin!
The wife, kids and I were on our monthly vacay to Surathkal in December last year. This served as valuable time-off for my wife Divya who grew up there and some time for the kids to be spoilt rotten by their grandparents. Surathkal is a small town in Dakshina Kannada (DK) district situated in the state of Karnataka (India). Sometimes people make a mistake by calling Mangalore as Dakshin Kannada, whereas in reality, the city falls within the jurisdiction of Dakshin Kannada. Coming back to the story, it was Sunday and at around 4:30am we started from Bangalore via Hassan, Sakleshpura and ShiradiGhat. At 8am we had a quick breakfast at Sakleshpura, and reached Surathkal around 12 pm. Apart from my wife and kids, I too had my reasons to visit. The opportunity to click some amazing pictures of birds. I had just started dabbling into birding when this trip came up to be, so it was difficult for me to contain my excitement. Much to the amusement of my co-passengers. I had packed up my cameras and lenses with a lot of care. When I had visited this place last time in 2017, I had the Nikon D5200 and a 70–300mm lens without stabilization. I had captured some good pictures of the Roufus Treepie, Yellow-footed green pigeon, Greater racket-tailed drongo,Asian Koel, Ashy drongo, Red-whiskered bulbul, Oriental magpie-robin male etc.
All these birds would visit the compound of the house we generally used to stay. With that prior knowledge, this time I packed the 70–200mm Canon IS II lens and the Canon 6D (this one delivers a fiery 4.5 frames per second in continuous shoot mode) with a 2Xextender. Exciting stuff!
We reached around noon, but we quickly kept our luggage in our rooms, and had a blitz lunch. I started my exploratory activities immediately after with my newly acquired Canon6D. As soon as I came out of the house and walked a few steps towards a jack fruit tree, which was inside our neighbor’s compound, I heard a rattling sound. It was a crow! Not an exotic bird, but a very plain and normal looking crow. It was right above me. Flying from one branch of the tree to another, there were more than 20 of them. I thought the crows might be communicating to each other and announcing the arrival of a strange member of the human species. Me. Maybe it was a call to stay alert as our track record in the nature department hasn’t really been of a stellar nature. I am sure I looked quite menacing with my camera to them.
I stepped away quite a bit away from them, around 50 meters and with and zoomed in to see if I could see any crow chicks in the nest. The zoom capability on the Canon has always impressed me and it was quite clear there were no eggs and no nests. I couldn’t control my curiosity. Why did they suddenly get so disturbed? Was it because of my entry? These questions raced around in my mind as I zoomed, aimed and analysed most of the area. There were absolutely no nests or chicks. I continued onwards on my mission, slightly enthused with the discovery of the crows. I could only find the Oriental Magpie Robin, but I had captured this bird through my lens multiple times before. In other words, it was too common and that went against my objectives of that day. It was to try and capture the Greater tailed racketed drongo, or the orange colored Asian paradise flycatcher. I walked around a bit more when I found a few more crows making their usual racket.
I felt maybe, the reason behind my abject failure that day was because of these crows! Because of their cawing the other birds had flown away. For a few brief seconds I blamed the crows before heading into the house to catch some shut-eye till 4PM.
With a fresh mind and a good mood, I stepped out again with my entire gear. As soon as came out, the “orchestra” began again. One of the crows just flew over the top of my head. They were flying haphazardly from one tree to another. They were behaving as if I had come to kill them all! I got irritated and traipsed off in the opposite direction to try and shoot some of the birds from my mental repertoire. Although, the strangest thing was that wherever I went, a couple of crows would follow me, cawing all the way. I tried ignoring this as well and forgot about them soon as I saw a few mongooses moving around.
Clicked some pictures of them and was lucky enough to capture the Ashy Drongo between my lenses! The day turned out to be quite fruitful from then on as I soon captured a few other birds which I had never seen before in my life! All this, while the background score from the crows were on in full swing!
The next day, I awoke with some hope that the crows would fly away in a day so I could do my thing in peace. Spent some time with the family and had a comfortable slumber, forgetting about my crows for the rest of the day. Next morning, I woke up at 6am, took my camera and stepped out again. As soon as I came out it began again. This time though it was akin to rock music but quite unpleasant! My face must have looked like a frustrated Mr. Bean cursingthe 3-wheeled car. That day turned out to be a dry one as I couldn’t capture a single bird other than the crow.
During the day however, I started giving some serious thought to this problem to come up with a different strategy. A fool proof way to go outside without making the crows know of my presence. A near impossible task, but I decided to go ahead with it anyway. So, instead of going out from the front door, I exited the house from the back door this time, and it led me towards the steps which would ultimately take me to the roof. From one particular corner of the roof, the jackfruit tree would not be visible and I could hide myself from the prying eyes of my pestilence. I settled into a position in my corner and waited. After quite a long wait, I got to see a pair of GRT Drongo fly towards the teak tree which was about 10 meters away from my corner.
With a huge sigh of relief, I moved as stealthily as I could and concentrated only on capturing this Drongo. One of them was hiding between the branches and the other was right in front of me, but the background was with leaves and trees. With my primitive skills of the time I could not do much justice to nature’s composition. Still, I focused the lens and keeping the focal point at dead center, started clicking. With my movement as if mirroring them, the drongos were also flying from branch to branch. After a few shots, I stepped down from the roof and walked towards the teak tree. Immediately, one of our rockstars started singing and others followed soon to add to the chorus. I maintained my calm and tried to forget the irritation as I walked back to the teak tree slowed down by failure. As I drew closer, the Drongos immediately flew away and only then did our rockstars begin moving towards me. It was fascinating to see how the crows waited till the drongo flew away to come closer to me. Cursing them loudly, I went inside the house. Overall, we stayed for 3 days and the same thing continued for all 3 days. We returned to Bangalore and I tried to pacify myself with the thoughts that I did manage to capture a few good pictures.
This made me think especially about this behaviour of crows. Why were they cawing so much and why did they follow me when they saw me? I still feel that there was a chick somewhere in a hidden nest amongst the foliage of the tree. Somewhere where I couldn’t see.
This reminded me of an interesting thing I had once seen. A few years ago, I had seen a crow following a man on a channel dedicated to nature on TV. In this particular episode, the man would be followed everywhere. He would always carry an umbrella to avoid being pecked by the crow. The man apparently had destroyed its nest a long time back. The crow was probably just taking revenge.
Coming back to my story, I nearly forgot to mention another very important fact which I feel reinforces my nest+chick theory! At one point of time there was a fight between a flock of Golden Orioles and the crows. I think maybe the flock was after the eggs and that had made the crows very territorial.
Further research showed that crows have always been very protective. They won’t give up easily. They will take revenge and may strike anytime during the course of your life. Fortunately, my experience with them wasn’t life-threatening.
In Hindu mythology, the crow is the vahana (vehicle) of Shani (Saturn). According to the legends, Shani is will always be watching you and will always make sure that you receive yourkarma (deeds). I felt my failure during the trip and the cawing of crows were the result of my karma.
On a lighter note, beware of crows if you have committed a wrong! Do good deeds so that you can click good pics peacefully 😉
This was the first bird on my narrative list. I will be posting more about other birds I have encountered through the years. I might need your help in identifying some of them as I am still no expert! Comment below!
Finally, many thanks to Hem (Hemdeep Ray) for editing the copy and making it rich.
Like and follow @ facebook — Bimba Creations and @ instagram — Bimba Creations
Visit us @ www.bimbacreations.in
Comments