ALL ABOUT CROW AND CROWETTE AND SQUAWK

ALL ABOUT CROW AND CROWETTE AND SQUAWK

THE PEACE PARK CATS part 5

Crow and Crowette (who use to be just “and Crow” until renamed by Andrew) are European Hooded crows.  They have a nest in the topmost branches of a very tall cedar tree in the lower car park below the Peace Park.

Crow is larger than Crowette, his feathers are shining and he is very shrewd in judging which cat might leave pieces just right for Crow to eat.  Crowette is more cautious and smaller than Crow and likes to fly into the lower branch of the Robinia tree some minutes after Crow always sitting a little lower on the branch.

Both watch carefully what the Peace Park Cats have for lunch.  In the beginning the old professor didn’t like Crow and Crowette because she thought they were cruel birds stealing eggs and chicks from other bird’s nests.  But the old professor learnt that Crow and Crowette were also very useful in helping clean the Peace Park.  Because the Peace Park becomes very messy every month the old professor would put on her field gloves and have an “emu parade” which means picking up the rubbish and putting it into the bin.

Crow and Crowette by Andrew

So slowly Crow, Crowette and the old professor came to respect each other.  The old professor helped by putting small, left over meat pieces on the Scala wall and Crow was mostly patient while the Peace Park Cats ate their lunch.  This also helped the new kittens to be less afraid of coming for lunch. So everything seemed to work out well.

Crow and Crowette built a big, untidy looking nest of sticks from the Elm tree, Robina tree and left over bones high in the Cedar tree.  It was very messy on the outside but warm and cosy on the inside because Crowette used her feathers to line the nest.

Then, in the Spring Crowette lay four beautiful blue eggs with brown speckles on them.  The eggs took a lot of looking after as they needed to be kept warm and dry for more than three weeks.  Crowette sat on the eggs very carefully while Crow hunted for food to bring back to her.

The weather that summer was very stormy and the nest high in the cedar tree was blown about badly, so much that one day an egg broke.  Then another was cracked on a sharp stone, and Oh dear, another was stepped on.  But one blue egg with speckles survived safely.

Finally, the egg opened and  Squawk hatched.  He had a very big beak, two very big eyes, two very big feet and a middle bit between that looked like an old paper bag which was very, very hungry. What a lot of noise he made!  Crow and Crowette took turn to find food for him flying up to the Peace Park and over the school yard. How busy they became always searching for food and winging it to their nest.  All sorts of food they found was taken to Squawk and the nest became full of fish bones from Shadow’s sardines, bones from Buttercup’s chicken wings, little bits of grizzle from Suni’s beef cubes and an odd snail shell and lizard foot. Poor Crow and Crowette were so very tired.

When Squawk was two weeks old he started to grow small feathers but his beak was still very big and his mouth almost always wide open for food.

After Crow’s cleverness in dropping sticks to frighten the Peace Park Cats from their lunch bowls the old professor started to put extra food on the Scala wall so lunch time was not quite so noisy.

Eventually Squawk began to grow real feathers and was learning to fly. Crow would fly first from the tall Cedar tree to the Robina branch which was an easy glide.  Then Squawk would follow flapping a little bit as he balanced on the branch.  Crow watched the old professor put extra food on the Scala wall and when she returned to her bench under the Plum tree Crow would swoop down and peck the food, jumping up and down a little but encouraging Squawk to come as well.  And then Squawk came looking very untidy as his feathers were a mix of down and pin feathers but he happily gobbled up food until Crow selected three pieces of meat and flew back to the nest where Crowette was waiting.  Squawk made a very grumbling noise and followed Crow using the steep Scala steps to gain flight and then flapped through the Cedar tree branches.

All through the summer Squawk grew larger until the old professor couldn’t tell the difference between Crowette and Squawk.  Then one day in the autumn Squawk flew away to make a territory of his own and only Crow and Crowette remained in the Peace Park.