Crowfriend, Leveling Up

The crows come and go seasonally, and I am not so keen an observer that I can tell them apart. This new family of three (if indeed it's new, and not just returning from their winter wanderjahr) is brass-bold, though, in the most delightful way. 

One morning they called me out particularly early, so much so that I couldn't see them in the trees. I put my hands on my hips and made a big deal of looking around, as if I couldn't find them, and proclaimed, "BIRBS! Where are you, birbs?" And one of them onto the screen right above the door I use to get out.

This is really weird. They never fly toward me. When I throw peanuts, they wait until my back is turned and I'm walking away to come closer. So... okay. Interesting. I walked slowly toward him until I was standing under him and he didn't fly away.

We studied one another for a few moments. Then I said, quiet and burbly, like the noises they make, "Birb? Why you so noisy this morning? It's not even 6:30." When he showed no signs of unease, I continued lecturing him in that friendly intonation, and he cocked his head and stared at me, close enough I could see him blink.

 Finally, I pointed slowly at the door handle. "Imma gonna use this door now, crow. You okay with that? Yes? Here I go." I took a cautious step forward and put my hand on the handle, and all he did was rotate in place so he could watch me from the other direction. I opened the door and peeked my head out, craned it to look at him.

He looked back, with no screen between us, and no tension.

O_O

So I tossed the peanuts and said, "Here, crows. Breakfast!" And another flew to the tree right next to the door and said 'grlglghgh' the way they do when they're talking instead of calling.

The next time they came by, two of them lit on the screen to stare down at me, and they were making an awful racket, so I went outside and looked up at them and said, "Birbs, why are you being so rude? I like your little gurgle noises better." They didn't fly away again, so I tried making one of them at them. "Grrgglgle."

A pause, then one of them made the gurgle noise back. I tried again, aiming for something closer to their family-communication noise, and we made burbling noises at one another: five distinct exchanges, where they waited for me to speak and then responded. After that, I tossed the peanuts and Bird #3 joined them on the lawn.

I am delighted by their fearlessness, even if I'm now a little concerned that the next step is perching on the human. I don't wear long sleeves, like, ever, and I can't imagine crow claws are blunt...