Magpies, Ravens, and Crows--Oh My!

I will make you pin cushions of 3 Sisters if you swap me with these fabrics of beans, squash and corn       thank you so.

Love all small

prints and 3 is our 3 sisters and also legend I will swap for. and make you pin cushions

Thank you, Carolyn. :)

Many years after my crow friend disappeared, today I had a lovely experience. Coming back from the High Street I passed the patch of grass where he used to be waiting for his biscuits and a young crow was strutting there, as if he owned the place. So I threw a handful of biscuits on the grass and the crow flew away, so disappointing... But! I had to go back to the shops later and the crow flew past me and landed not far. I had changed my coat, and still it recognised me! Unfortunately I did not have biscuits in the pocket now.  Of course, I run home, got a handful of the dog biscuits I keep for foxes and others and run back. It was on top of a tree and came down to eat but only when I moved a bit away. It is the first time we have hooked and I am looking forward to a long and happy relationship.

This is the Old Crow, photos of my new friend will follow. 

What a glorious tale, Martha! To a long and satisfying relationship (or not, as the case may be---maybe Just Right in whatever way that unfolds),

from your Zen pal Jan

Oh Martha, what great pictures and a lovely story. My “crowd” of crows appear daily about 5pm and get noisy when I’m late getting them snacks. They are not too happy about our new kittens, but seem to be getting more comfortable, as they realize the cats can’t get out of our screen patio. Thanks again for sharing.

Beautiful, Martha!

In the city I live the crows are a bit more tame then at the countryside. So it is possible to feed them, too. When we're walking in the park my husband sometimes brings some nuts with him. And in case he sees a crow he throws a nut on the ground so that the crow can see it. That way we feed several crows so far. Often they call for other crows to come. One day we started with one crow and in the end we were surrounded by 12 of them! It's so cute! 

Handsome young crow 

Thank you for your good wishes everybody. My photos were not good, not as that of Sabrina'a crow. What a handsome bird!

I got this stunning paper cut from Carolyn! Thank you so much Carolyn! It arrived save and in one piece. :) I will frame it, but the frames I have at home aren't fitting. 

@Martha: my husband did the photo. He's a hobby photographer. 

Carolyn Cline sent me this beautiful crow collage!

Awesome collage!

Carolyn and Toni, great works! My sis just gave me the cutest baby crow finger puppet. I'll have to include her portrait in some mail art.....I've been overly involved in 2 back-to-back gallery shows and am about ready to get back to mail art!

I found this poor lonely crow among my rejected doodles. Not a beauty as all your super work but I am sorry for it so here it is.

If I could do cut outs or drawings on black on the gold it would be great but I do not think I would be successful. Not where near Carolyn's.

I shall try.

I love these birds, so yes, please, Pam, if you want to send it to me, would be great!

Thank you, Pam, looking forward to adding some fellow corvids to your add&pass!

To Carolyn's Deer Rider:  Yeehaw, ride 'em, Cowcrow! (guess that oughta be Deercrow)

I would love to receive this A&P. It might take me a little while to send it on, but I think it's really cool!

Thank you, Pam, your crows have landed safe and sound in the Netherlands!

Shall I forward it to you, Toni?

It might take a few weeks due to some family circumstances, but as i love to draw corvidae i hope and guess my contribution will take days instead of weeks...

At least the envelope already is ready :-) 

Please let me know, Toni, if I shall add your name and address to it!? :-)

(a jackdaw, no crow but at least they're family)

Yes, Heleen, I'd love to receive this!

Pam's Crows and my Magpie (and twitterbirds) are on their way to you, Toni!

I am ready to send on Pam's Add & Pass, which is quite gorgeous --

Sorry this is such a crappy photo, but you can see how nice it is with Heleen's, Pam's and my adds so far. Who wants this?

Here's a picture of a crow that symbolizes how we all may feel sometimes...

Very odd position. I first thought the crow might be dead and made some noise to attract its attention. It looked at me, then got back to this odd position. I've no idea what it is doing. 

I think your crow is sun bathing. He stetches to feel the heat on his chest and throat. Could it have a sore throat?

You might be right, Martha... 

I saw the crow that usually patrols the front of the house with a white something in his beak, which turned out to be a piece of bread, obviosly very dry because he dropped it in the bird bath to soften it and then came back several times to eat it through the morning.

How cute, Martha. :)

Loved all the images of corvids that have been posted.Sunce the 60 foot cedar adjoining my back yard was felled , I do not have 

crows frequenting my b ack yard and do miss them.For fellow crow lovers I would like to recommend the film Tokyo Waka a lyrical look at the city and its love hate relationship with crows.I saw it some yeRs back at an international film festival  and discovered that at the moment you can see for free by doing. Trial of Fandor via Amazon.I will be sending out some crow pieces to those of you who still seem active.

Ann, welcome. I am so sorry you lost your crows and the trees too. Years ago I had a crow near our house i used to feed with dog biscuits. One day while I was feeding it a band of young crows attacked it right in front of me. I managed to shoo them off and my crow survived but I did not see it again. The band stayed around so I suppose it was scared off. i still miss it when I go to the shops. Now I got a couple living right in front of my house where there is a group of trees and I saw them yesterday with a baby. The adults were drinking at the bird bath by my front door and the youngster was looking on. I could not get to my phone quickly enough to take a photo .

Received from Ann Golden  with a very up to date comment. Since I am here,  news from my  crows. Yesterday the parents were feeding the youngster on top of a tree and after they encouraged it to fly. Seemed a bit worried and not very keen, they were very high up.

The following is from the BBC, which tries hard to show it is not only Covid, Brexit and Trump that worries the nation:

The Tower of London's "queen" raven is missing and feared dead, according to staff at the fortress.

Merlina, who joined the flock in 2007, has not been seen for several weeks.

The Tower usually has six ravens at any time and, according to legend, if they ever leave then both the fortress and the kingdom will fall. There are currently seven in residence. Charles II is believed to have been the first monarch to officially decree that the birds must be kept at the Tower at all times.

When numbers fell to just a single raven guard, Winston Churchill ordered that the flock — known as an "unkindness" — was increased to at least six.

In 2018 the Tower launched a raven breeding programme after Historic Royal Palaces warned it was becoming "increasingly difficult" to source the birds.

Below the Ravenmaster Christopher Skaife with a raven chick. He is distraut at the disappearance of Merlina.

Thank you for sharing, Martha. But I'am afraid I have to say, you are doomed!

Raven Women.  Hope you like.   I love the Black Birds also.  CAW    CAW

Is that Merlina herself ? Great name.I have had an. Envelope almost put together for you for weeks now, if not months. Will try to get out this week.

Kayenderes, I like your winged woman. 

Beautiful Raven Woman, Kayenderes!

And Martha, thank you very much for writing about the Tower Ravens. I had never heard about them before, and it is good to read that people are caring for these amazing and beautiful birds. Ravenmaster must be a wonderful job! I hope Merlina will come back soon (or otherwise will be spotted in an other tower, or tree, where she is happy)

That super Raven Woman should have a whole comic dedicated to it. What about it, Kayenderes?  Maybe called Merlina, it is a great name for sure.

Yes Sabrina, we are,  we have brexited against my last flimsy hopes.  I am so sad.

Maybe Merlina, the Raven Woman. will save us.

We grow 'em big out here in the Pacific Northwest!

With love from She Who Talks To Crows, aka Zen Jan.

Remember I reported that Merlina, the Queen Raven resident in the Tower of London was missing? I am sad to add now that she never came back. 

But these lovely chicks ravens have been born now...

Read all about it here and at the bottom of the page you can vote on the choice of name of the female. The male  has been called Edgar in memory of E.A.Poe. I voted for Florence.

https://www.hrp.org.uk/tower-of-london/whats-on/the-ravens/

That is sad news and good news, thank you for sharing!

I wanted to vote for the name ‘Martha’ but the name was not available. I think Branwen a great name (by the way, Winifred or Winfried happens to be a male name here in NL). 
Your choice for Florence is great, too, but I couldn’t help voting Branwen though :-)

Heleen! I do not know if to be flattered or not by your Martha suggestion. I decided to be flattered! Thank you!

I’m picking random names from the group and sending out some fun crow art. Keep an eye out for snail mail !

I received a gorgeous crow from Richard Baudet, hand printed on the envelope, here it is