Outside our office window a drama is brewing.   This winter when we had the snow and ice storm that cause a roof leak at the office several trees were damaged too.   One in particular is a pine that had its top broken off along with several branches broken.  Of all the trees in the area to pick, a crow pair decided this one was the place to raise a family.

This has been going on for several weeks.  They started building the stick skeleton in this broken tree that has little cover. Then they worked in another pine on the corner of our lot.   That corner tree made so much more sense.  We even thought the broken tree was just a fake nest to throw off their enemies.   Monday when we returned to the office you could see they had been busy over the weekend working in the broken tree again.   Mid week they were even lining it for the big event.   My window has such a good view I witnessed him bringing her ivy and she taking it from his beak to place in the nest.   A peek into their partnership and how they build a nest all in one.

The office was also abuzz because one of the branches on the tree was turning brown and several folks were parking next to it.   We teased them they might end up with a pine bough on their hood.  Thursday morning the warehouse crew put traffic cones in front of the tree to keep folks from parking there.  Don’t want any smashed car hoods.  They also took a lift up to see if they could remove the limb.   After tugging on it, our guys determined it would take a saw to remove.   They said that the crows gave them the evil eye and they would need crow protection as well.   The decision was made to just leave it alone for now.

As if that wasn’t enough excitement, on Thursday around the lunch hour a big crow fight broke out up on the sidewalk up next to the building.  One of my team mates threw some bread out there to help break it up.   That did the trick but then the seagulls showed up.   The bread was in the drive close to the nest tree and the commotion that came from that was just plain noisy.

Friday when I came in the family wasn’t around and I feared they had deserted their near complete nest.   However, not long after I got my coffee I started to see at least one of them.   A meeting later I came out of my office to find that a dead crow was found in the bushes where the fight had happened the day before.   We enlisted our good office neighbor to help us go look and remove the body.   What we found was a very healthy well fed crow who had been pecked to death.  Our crow remover turned him over and we think he might even be a raven due to the size of his beak.  I am not sure if that is true but it is possible.

Whatever he was he is dead now.   He must have come back for more because when we left on Thursday night his body wasn’t there.  That makes us think he just didn’t get the hint and returned.   If he was a raven, then the family were even more freaked out about his arrival.   He wouldn’t have hesitated about stealing eggs or babies.

As I left Friday, I turned around and looked back at the building for the pair.   There they were paired up on top of the old TV antenna.   This confirmed it was an intruder that was dead and they were still hanging in the area.

Nature is wonderful to observe.   You never know what you will be shown; it can be sweet and cute or it can be cold and brutal.   It is all about survival in the end.  Are we humans that different?

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