Every year about this time we get a special demonstation from the vantage point of our living room window. A nutcracking “Here’s How” by the crows. These ingenious birds like walnuts and have discovered the tree two doors down. But those shells are sure tough to crack. So their innovative method is to pick up a nut, fly up to the telephone wires to position themselves and ‘drop!’ the walnut to the pavement below. It cracks open and they can then extract the nutmeat. The challenge to this otherwise straighforward procedure is that crows seem to always come in groups and they are not inclined to play fair. So while one is dropping his precious nut, another may be down below waiting, or swooping in to snatch it. It’s wonderful rainy day entertainment. They get quite handy at learning to swoop down just behind the nut so as to be on the spot when it lands. All very tricky. And mind the cars!
And now you know what small town homebodies do for entertainment!
Sorry, no picture of the actual crows. I have neither the patience nor the skill nor the equipment to capture birds in flight or nuts in freefall. I’ll have to leave that to your imagination.