The Crow Family Tree

Legend says that if the six ravens ever leave the Tower of London, then the monarchy will fall, the White Tower at The Tower of London will crumble and a great disaster will befall England.  Being superstitious, they don't take any chances and the Ravens that live at the Tower are protected by a royal decree.

It was Charles II who first insisted the ravens of the Tower should be protected.  There are seven ravens at the Tower, the required six plus one spare. They hang at the Wakefield Tower, are rather large, and should not be approached too closely by anyone other than the Ravenmaster.  When we visited the Tower, we saw a posted sign saying you are not to feed them or get too close, they are protective of their territory and will bite if they feel their territory is being threatened.  At the Tower, you will find them walking about just doing their thing. They have had one wing clipped and it literally keeps them grounded.

Across the great pond, in the United States, you will find the descendants of these great Royal Ravens, the standard crow and they seem to conjugate atop our carriage house. In keeping with the tutor design, we modeled our carriage house after Anne Hathaway's Cottage. At any given time, you'll find two to six crows that sit, walk around, poop, and just do their thing in our yard, as well as on the roof peek.  I'm not sure if they hang at our home because it's an English styled property and they feel at home - it's in their blood - or they do it to get under my skin.  These crows are very intelligent and annoy me to no end.  One crow perches on top, watching for predators, while the horde tears up my lawn feeding on grubs and other insects.  If I'm in the kitchen I can slam my screen door 3 times and they will fly away.  Needless to say, they are very destructive and I hate them.

Most people in the Adirondack Mountains battle mice in the cellar, squirrels who get into bird feeders and deer who think our flower beds are just as tasty as the smorgasbord of your favorite restaurant.  We drop bombs in holes that are made by moles who burrow through manicured lawns trying to move them out and on their way to another yard. We set Have a Heart traps for chipmunks, who dig in the flower garden looking for tulip and daffodil bulbs, in the hope of catching them so we can relocate Chip n' Dale to the nearest campsite.  One summer alone I relocated 10 chipmunks.

I am constantly battling these God awful crows. A group of crows can tear up a lawn in a matter of hours looking for grubs.  Their beaks are very sharp and once they have them stuck in the lawn, a quick twist of their head can tear up a chunk of lawn the size of a saltine cracker.  If you have a horde of crows digging for grubs, an entire lawn can be ruined in no time at all.

A couple years ago, my husband gave me a pellet rifle for Christmas to blast these crows.  These birds have keen hearing and sight.  I've tried sneaking up on them, I've hid behind trees and even sat like a manikin in a lawn chair just waiting for my chance to blast their butts.  Every time I try to take my shot, these birds take flight before I even get my rife raised.  Once I give up and return to the house, they return to perch, atop the roof.  It's a battle I cannot win.

I'm sure for the remainder of my years, these crows will be an annoyance to me in some form or another.  
I'll just have to put up with them until they decide to move on to a better location, but for some reason, I don't think that will happen. What I do know is the Crow Family Tree will continue to grow, increasing in size each year, unless I put a bounty on their heads.  So, for now, we'll just have to learn how to coexist until I become a better shot or I decide to go out and buy myself a shotgun.







Barbie