The Crows
At my place in Santa Ynez, CA, we have a lot of crows around. At first, they annoyed me a lot. Their “caw” can be pretty grating and will definitely wake you up if it’s right outside your open window…every morning… So we had a pretty antagonistic relationship for a while.
But then, I was learning about manifestation through some of the things I was reading and how the energy that you approach things with can make a significant difference to how they respond to you. I thought about that in relation to the crows, because at this point every time I went outside and they were around, they would screech and holler at me like assholes, to which I would respond in kind sometimes.
So I changed tactics. I would go outside and even while they would screech at me, I would try to send them protective and loving energy. Feeling into thinking “This is the land that I am entrusted with taking care of. You crows are a part of that land, so you are under my protection.”
I started paying more attention to them and realized that they would chase hawks away from my property. I have chickens and a pet rabbit that roams free, which a hawk would love to make a meal out of. So in essence, the crows were protecting my animals. I felt grateful towards them.
After sending them loving and protective energy for a couple weeks or so, they stopped screeching at me when I went outside. They would actually follow me around sometimes too. I genuinely felt that these crows and I had become friends. They protected my animals and I welcomed them to find grubs and hang out on my property. There were times in the last 8 months or so that I’ve seen a hawk circling overhead without any crows around and I’ve been able to connect with the spirit of the crows and call to them. So that a minute or two later I’ll see one or two crows show up, chase the hawk away and then go back to wherever they came from. They also stopped being loud outside my window in the morning. I forgot they even used to do that, until today.
A few days ago I heard my next door neighbor shoot a small gun of some kind and a moment later heard a small thud on the ground like perhaps he had hit a small bird. The next day, I was out in my backyard and another shot went off and scared me because I heard it go past me. I guess he missed his target that time and I happened to be in the general direction. I confronted him about it, because he was shooting in the direction of houses, one particular house in fact that has a couple young kids that are around 4-6 years old. He mouthed off about how some crow shit on his truck after he had just washed it which pissed him off, so he took a shot at it with this “high powered pellet gun”.
I told him about how the crows keep the hawks away and I like having them around for that reason and told him to be careful about the direction he’s shooting. It was a tense conversation with him trying to sound tough while staring at his shoes. I don’t think he’ll be doing anymore shooting here in the near future.
I hadn’t seen many crows over the past couple of days, which saddened me, but I also understood. Then, this morning I woke up to a crow that was cawing loudly outside my window in a way that sounded sad and angry. It was a bit early for crows to be out and it sounded like he was alone. I got up and went outside to see what was going on. When I got out there he walked/stumbled away from me on the fence, but stopped after about 10 yards and let me approach. He was about a foot above me and 3 feet away from me on the fence. He seemed injured, but like he wanted to communicate with me. We sat there for maybe 2-3 minutes looking at each other. I told him that I was sorry that he was injured and sorry for any hurt they had experienced from my neighbor. And then I listened. He told me of hurt, of sadness and of anger. How the crows don’t feel safe here right now and that they have marked my neighbor as an enemy. I acknowledged that and him, and covered him in the love that I could. It was a peaceful, knowing exchange. He let out a caw and jumped off the fence out of sight.
Maybe 15 minutes later, a murder of crows came by, which lifted my spirits at first, but they were only here for a few minutes. They sounded loud and kind of menacing. It seemed like a rescue mission to help their injured brother away.
I feel grateful. I feel that the crows didn’t have to send someone to tell me what was up, but in so doing, they acknowledged that I am an ally and ‘noble’ so to speak, someone with power in the area. So they came to me in the early morning hours, before anyone else was around, to voice their grievances and assure me that their war is not on me. I’m not entirely sure what I can or will do, but crows kind of do what they want. It’s hard to keep them away from where they want to be. Of course I will support them however I can and I hope that my property can return to being a peaceful, safe haven for them soon.