Don't mess with Crow

There was drama in the yard yesterday. Crow (my favorite crow) and a bunch of his friends murdered a huge crow. There are normal-sized crows and there are very big crows, perhaps three times the size of the others. The victim was a member of the larger species.

It was strange. I missed the first part of the interaction, when the crows attacked him, but my sister saw it. She said a whole bunch of crows ganged up on the big guy and tore at him with beaks and claws. When I tuned in, the big guy was seriously hurt. His left wing hung unfurled on the ground and he was dragging it as he tried to get away. He was literally stumbling and could hardly walk.

All the while, Crow was stalking him. A lot of crows were in on this but Crow was clearly their leader. He followed the hurt crow, staying about 12 feet behind him. In the end, the large crow disappeared behind a line of bushes, and Crow followed him around the bend. I assume they ripped the big guy to pieces at some point, and ate the good parts.

My sister was worried. She thought this behavior meant there was something "wrong" with the bird population. But I knew it was just nature in action. The big guy undoubtedly pissed Crow off by violating the Code of the Crow. You never want to do that because the punishment is death.

This doesn't change my opinion of Crow. He's my friend. And he's a murderer. It's what crows do.

Geese marching in V formation

We often see geese flying in a V formation. But the other day, I saw the geese in our yard using this move on the ground. It happened so quickly that I couldn't get a shot of them doing it, but I'm going to keep my eye out and my camera handy for the next appearance of this behavior.

When I went looking for a photo (or even a mention) of geese using this formation on the ground, I found nothing. I was surprised. You'd think there would be photos or a discussion of this somewhere. Perhaps I used the wrong search terms.

In any case, what they do is the following. When a predator lands on the ground in territory that the geese consider theirs, they step into V formation. It's just like the V they form when flying, but it takes place on solid ground. What they do is approach the threat as one unit, a huge, V-shaped monster. It seems to the predator that he's being "surrounded" as the lead goose's aggressiveness is amplified by the two arms of the phalanx.

The geese on our property, perhaps 20 or 30 of them, did this to a turkey vulture the other day. They marched in a well-formed V, with heads held low and necks extended far forward in threatening fashion. And they made lots of noise as they approached, so they presented not only a visual but an auditory wall of hyped-up geese.

Worked like a charm. The turkey vulture flew off and didn't return. I will definitely try to get a photo the next time this happens. Birds are so cool. By the way, this is exactly what Konrad Lorenz pointed to in his book, "On Aggression". In the animal world, aggressive displays are a way to funnel aggression into activities that allow the creatures to express the feeling of aggression while protecting their territory and causing no harm to themselves -- or even to the predator for whom the display is intended. 

This is a talent humans must develop. We don't need to obliterate countries and people. Instead, we could learn to channel our aggression into non-destructive displays such as sports. Have a beef with another country? Play a soccer match to decide who wins. Preen and strut and threaten all you want -- year-round if it makes you happy -- but in the end, only play an aggressive game. The geese have this all worked out. So do fish and a zillion other animals. So how come we can't manage this simple trick?