Attack of the crows!

Sadly I have no pictures for this right now. Might eventually add a baby crow I took last year. [update: added an anticlimactic picture of the dried blood.]

In the park with the kids today, they found a baby crow. It was obviously tired and unable to fly more. It was headed for a play-date of a bunch of little yuppie larvæ whose ’rents weren’t watching at all. I don’t actually like crows much. I respect them for their brains but they aren’t in my top bird list. So I wouldn’t have minded seeing an otter or something eat the fledgling but I sure dislike cruelty and I didn’t wanna see the little bastards chase it into the dirt. So I picked it up to take it to the trees.

The adult crows waited till the fledgling started squawking. The first two passes were a couple feet over my head. The third one—and no one was more suprised than I—connected like a whiffle bat wrapped in blackberries, dead in the top of my skull.

I put the chick on a fence in some bushes and trees. I put my hand to my head. Came down with a fair amount of blood on my palm.

The most interesting part is that as someone who has no fear of animals I now can see a bit more of a horror aspect to things like The Birds. The blow didn’t stun me or anything but six hours later and my head is still tight and aching. It feels like a little bit of concussion and everything. If I’d taken that shot in the face, I’d have landed on my ass and spent the evening in the emergency room getting my eyes fixed. A one pound bird. But I’m sure Tyrannosaurs didn’t hunt, Dr Horner. Jackass.

Let this be a lesson to anyone who wants to help anyone else.

Appendix to the attacks

Today was far from unique. The following are animals that have drawn my blood (or just pierced the skin). In order of blood let.

• Dogs
• Bull snake
• Various vespas
• Crow
• Chipmunk (it was a lot of blood)
• Cats (including a bite all the way through my thumb and two inch scar on my jaw)
• Coral (well, they are animals)

I think I’m forgetting one or two. I’ll update if I remember.