Spring has sprung

"Spring has sprung, grass has ris, I wonder where the birdies is?" -- nuggets of wisdom passed down from my father. 

Well, the birdies were tweeting today and not only on Twitter. We had lots and lots of rain today, a crash of thunder followed by more rain, then wind. Through it all, except for the thunder crash, the birdies were noisily doing what birdies do outside my window (except where the screens keep them from roosting). 

After all the wind, the sun appeared and I ran outside to take this photo. I ran because our weather has been so unpredictable, I didn't want to be caught in an unexpected snowstorm -- like the one we had ten days ago. 

But I'm not really worried about snow. I'm worried about crows. Our house is on their sunset flight path, which is an amazing sight to watch. I'm not so worried about their daily flight. I'm worried about their stops. 

Every couple of years they nest nearby and aggressively swoop, making contact with anything that appears to threaten their young 'uns. Like pathetic me, in the morning before coffee, dragging myself to the bus stop -- a threat?

We used to wave our arms wildly and shout disparaging remarks trying to intimidate them into moving to another back yard. Because we were scared. 

And then I watched Joshua Klein's TED Talk on "The amazing intelligence of crows." We were right to be scared. Crows are smart and they're going to take over the world. We were left with two choices: 1) sell the house and move to the desert; or 2) be nice to the crows. 

We're trying option 2, which includes speaking gently in short sentences, moving smoothly without sudden jerks or leaps off the ground, and leaving small twigs in easily accessible places, all the while wondering where the birdies is.