Kristen and the Crows
While walking back from Ade on the pedestrian road that runs behind the Science Center, I could hear the unsettling sound of crow laughter after dark.
Now, crows are entertaining, lovely birds during the day, but when they're active after nightfall there's just something unnatural about the sound. They weren't flocking or storming, as they have been every evening since it's gotten cold, but I could hear that there was a large party somewhere ahead in the dense little patch of woods.
The sky was partially illuminated by a waxing gibbous through filmy, fast-moving clouds; I caught a glimpse of Orion through a patch. The pines were silhouetted blacker than the night against the tide of the sky, and then three or four trees cast an odd lumpy shadow as well. For a moment I thought they were oaks that still resiliently held onto their leaves, until I realized that three hundred crows were clustered on the bare branches as thick as grapes.
They were settling in for the night, chuckling to each other in the growing cold, happy for their bizarre little community.
Now, crows are entertaining, lovely birds during the day, but when they're active after nightfall there's just something unnatural about the sound. They weren't flocking or storming, as they have been every evening since it's gotten cold, but I could hear that there was a large party somewhere ahead in the dense little patch of woods.
The sky was partially illuminated by a waxing gibbous through filmy, fast-moving clouds; I caught a glimpse of Orion through a patch. The pines were silhouetted blacker than the night against the tide of the sky, and then three or four trees cast an odd lumpy shadow as well. For a moment I thought they were oaks that still resiliently held onto their leaves, until I realized that three hundred crows were clustered on the bare branches as thick as grapes.
They were settling in for the night, chuckling to each other in the growing cold, happy for their bizarre little community.