Wednesday 26 October 2011

Lucky The Crow. 2006 - 2011. Sadly Missed.

Sadness abounds around the old homestead today, as we mourn the death of, as it turned out, the mis-named, 'Lucky' the crow.
She, or he, we never did determine the true gender, but thought female, lived with us from her fledgling days. We knew at first not to interfere when we found her and her sibling. Her parents were still around. However when the sibling was killed on the road, and Lucky was injured by an unknown predator, we took her, if you will excuse the unintended pun, under our wing.

George, my extremely handsome son, cared for her, until she was old enough to be given her freedom. We wondered if her slightly damaged wing would hinder her from flying, but on the day of release, she took to the sky with ease, and disappeared from our lives.
Three days later she reappeared, and never strayed from our boundaries again. In the first few days of her return she was, to be frank, as far as I was concerned, a flipping nuisance. she would without warning fly down and land on my head. Always a shock and painful as she dug her claws into my scalp. I soon discouraged this and she gave me up as a potential roost.

George however, had no such qualms and she took to always flying to him. He became the only person she fully trusted. It was a wonderful thing to hear him call to her and watch her fly and land on his outstretched arm.

Last year at four years old she reached maturity, and I wondered if the call of the wild would encourage her away. But it never did. Perhaps she knew that due to her damaged wing, and small size, she would not prosper.

She mucked in with the chickens most of the time, sharing their food. Sadie, the German Shepherd, and Bonnie the cat, somehow knew that she was part of the family and gave her no grief. Sadie would even tolerate Lucky's favourite game of sneaking up behind her, pulling her tail, and running away. Remarkable tolerance from Sadie, who does not like crows or magpies being on her territory and chases them away. How  she could tell the difference from a distance, always amazed me.
We suspect, from the way her feathers had been plucked out, that she was taken by a sparrowhawk. The same sparrowhawk who has cleared the area of collared doves, and takes the occasional blackbird.

So goodbye Lucky. Thanks for enriching our lives. We will miss you.

She lived free and wild, and I guess she died as a wild bird dies. 

13 comments:

  1. Heartrending story, John.Poor Lucky, those sparrowhawks are a pain.

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  2. So sorry to hear about Lucky. May she rest in peace

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  3. Ah, sweet story. I think crows are so interesting and amusing and too smart for their own good sometimes.

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  4. I have been reading your Blog for a week and been going to comment every night but decided I would wait til I had finished all the archives which I did late last night. You have such an interesting story to tell, you should write a book. Then a film, think of the hard time they would have trying to cast such a handsome fella !


    Poor Lucky, you can console yourself with the fact she would not have had a life at all if you hadnt rescued her. So perhaps not mis-named after all.
    Many years ago my kids found a pigeon that had been savaged by a cat. It was in a very sorry state, covered in blood and no tail left at all. They insisted it must go to the vets and I took it but I didnt feel it had a chance. Neither did the vet but he gave it a shot of anti-biotics and we took it home. We called him Pedro and kept him in a very large cage in a sheltered corner of the garden. Amazingly he survived and thrived and eventually grew a new tail. After a few months we released him and he flew well. After flying round the garden for a while he took off for good. His back end didnt recover completely from his ordeal tho he was the only bird I ever knew who could sit on his perch and poo up the wall at the side of him.

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  5. This is sad, but I won't say she died a horrible death, because that's the cycle of life - far better than crashing into a speeding vehicle! Crows do have that habit of pulling the tail, I've read that they do that to wolves too! RIP Lucky!

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  6. Thank you for sharing your memories of Lucky. We are all lucky to share the time we have with our companions. They are sadly missed when they leave us.

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  7. I love the cobweb picture! Lucky had a short life but a good one. RIP Lucky.

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  8. Oh that is a sad story. I never knew a crow could be domesticated. They are vey intelligent birds.

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  9. Life is a strange thing with lots of ups and downs. Lucky sounds 'lucky' to me.

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  10. John sorry to read about Lucky's demise, but life was good and surely thanks to you and handsome son George, she/he had many good days.

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  11. Oh my condolences to George and yourself I am sure lucky is going to be missed. B

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  12. This is a fantastic story. A wild bird, living a wild life but in the care of human! I'm sure she had a great life..

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