I Think I Have Found My Spirit Animal

[NightskyeB4Dawn]

Funny you should post this. I have a murder of crows and a few ravens that hang out around my house summer and winter, It's only been in the last week or so that I've realized they are watching over me, providing an "early alarm" system. For example, when a bear comes around, they will run it off, and then follow it through the tree tops up the mountain telling me where it is as it leaves, keeping me updated until it is over the mountain. They have a language of sorts, a different call for each predator they see - they have a different word for "man" than they have for "man with a gun". They know the difference, and annunciate it.

They have a different word for "bear", dog", cat", and "hawk", but curiously the crow word for "hawk" and "eagle" are the same thing, just louder for an eagle.

a bald eagle has made camp somewhere near here, and the crows tell me when it is in my area. I've gone out a couple times after it has been here to see if eagle left me  feather to use when I'm "smudging" with the tobacco, but so far no eagle feather. The ravens seem to have noticed that, because they left me two big old raven feathers to use. How they knew I was looking for feathers, or that I needed larger feathers, or what it was for, is anyone's guess, but leave them for me they did. They left them at my tobacco plants so that even I, being a mere dumbassed human, wouldn't miss their meaning.

Late last February, a red-railed hawk perched in a tree in the edge of the woods outside my bedroom window. The crows let me know it was there, and I watched them trying to run it off for about a half an hour before they succeeded.

Crows and ravens can be taught to speak human, just like parrots can. My dear Old Dad knew some kids in WV who had a pet crow, and it would talk. It would hang out with the kids when they were playing and yell "play ball!" at them. One day it was raiding the dog's bowl, and the dog took exception to that and snatched a mouthfull of feathers out of the crow, and the crow jumped back and cussed at the dog like a sailor, until a fly wouldn't alight on it.

Crows are smart, and can recognize individual humans, some as "friends", and some as "enemies".

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They are smart, engaging, and they like to interact with other species.

I saw a raven sitting on a fence post a few months ago. It was the biggest raven I have ever seen. He acted like he was king of the field, watching over the cows and the very young calves. We have a problem with coyotes, but I think that single donkey and the huge ass raven, was keeping everything under control. Donkeys don't play.

I love ravens and crows.