Transition by Crow.
Seasonal transitions are worthy of our attention. The natural world around us is chocked full of sounds, smells, colors, and critter signals so much more rewarding than the stylized seasonal colors of store aisle merchandise.
The crows that seemed scarce all summer are now filling the early morning air with their unmusical cawing. “Raucous” we think, listening to and watching their loud behaviors.
At the end of winter with a scarcity of other birds to watch I had noticed that seven crows arrived together daily. Now, as fall nudges out summer, seven crows have again been making their presence known. Is our linking crows with Halloween partially related to the way they fill the fall air, now absent of summer’s birds?
In contrast to the small sweet birds of the warm days now past, the crows seem graceless, coarse, their black feathers devoid of pleasing color patterns; menacing biker birds with hints of malice to be given wider berth.
Yet crows are savvy. Smart. Strong. Worthy of respect. Those who have studied them inform us we have underestimated their kind.* Like or dislike them they are an aware presence in the transition from warm to cold.
*Marzluff, John M. and Tony Angell. In the Company of Crows and Ravens. New Haven, CT: Yale Univ. Pr., 2005
Haupt Lyanda Lynn. Crow Planet: Essential Wisdom from the Urban Wilderness. New York: Little Brown and Co., 2009.
The Marginal Way 
This is a lovely post. I like crows a lot. I used to walk to the gym very early in the morning, and would watch the crows getting organized for their day, gathering and communicating with each other.
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Liked – I had no idea they were more of a winter bird but now that you mention it you are right. I liked to watch them at school during lunch recess cawing, clicking and finding bits of food in the yard. They would hop around and are really very funny characters to watch.
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