I woke up in the trees and had that moment of sweet sun shining on my beak. Then I remember with a jolt I was lost and not with my family. I was not alone though. The mob of guys I had joined was also stirring. Harry nudged me and asked if I was wake. “Come Edgar, don’t look so gloom. We will get something to eat and then find your family.”
The group started swooping and flying around getting warmed up. It was fun diving and soaring in and out of each other. Then we all took off to what Harry called the wharf. Not sure what that was but he said it would have lots of fish and other good things to nibble on.
We were a motley crew I noticed now that I check us out. We are molting and our feathers are not laying flat and have gone kind of brown vs our usual black. W look like we got roughed up in a fight. My favorite forest tree the madrona is also doing an odd molting thing. It’s pretty reddish bark is falling off in strips and revealing the pale silver green new bark below. Would we be green under our old feathers? I don’t want to be green.
The Wharf was so far away that we had to stop and rest a couple of times. The guys said the young ones were not ready for a direct flight. Guess I am one of several babies that had joined the gang. Then there it was on the horizon. It jutted out into the blue sparkling water and jogged to one side. It had humans on it and the distinct smell of fish hit us.
We all landed on this conveniently located limb that was on all sides of the wharf. Harry gave me another new word to learn. He called it railing. It is something that humans made to keep themselves from falling off the high up walkway. They are so silly humans. They can’t fly so they have to protect their young for years.
Then very quickly, the guys swooped over to where the humans were and landed on the walkway. There were all kinds of food just lying around. They said be quick before the humans see us and get mad. Sure enough they started yelling and running at us.
We flew away a few feet up the wharf and repeated the maneuver until that human chased us away. Before you know it I had a full belly and was so happy we had come here to the wharf.
I will have to show my family this great place and maybe for once Lizzie will stop crying because she will have a mouth full of fish. Gosh I miss them. Then I remember I was lost! How will I ever find my way home?
Crows of Arroyos 
Love this series!
Glad you like it… kind of small childrens book.
I can’t access websites easily from my computer. However, I wanted to tell you that, I read this passage (in my e-mail) about Edgar worrying about being lost and molting, and I wanted to say – what a GOOD experience this must be for you, writing this! What a great mental exercise, i.e., you are putting yourself IN the crow’s mind! The writing is good, and the more you write, the better you will get (and old writing rule I learned, years ago… 🙂 ). Keep it up! 🙂
Thanx – encouragment is so appreciated. After just writing about my crow observations this is actually so much easier. Plus it is helping my writing. One thing I did was I write in Word now instead of in the wordpress window. That somehow has helped.
Practice makes perfect & I hope to write this longer story I have from the 70s when I went to Europe. What an adventure.
Thi is lovely and also answered my question about some raggedy crows in my neighborhood–i was hoping it was natural and they weren’t sick–feel much better now!
You made my evening by enjoying and learning from my baby crow story. Did you see my more scientific article on molting? It’s Molting Time – Crows, Herons & Madrona Trees http://wp.me/p1d1cX-9j. That is one of my most read articles. Guess lots of folks worry about our crow friends. Thanx for visiting. R