Hawks and Crows
The sound was unmistakable. From inside my house I could hear the distinctive “caw, caw” of multiple crows and the sound wasn’t fading away as it does when they do a fly-by. I grabbed my camera and rushed outside because I suspected that they were trying to drive off a hawk. At the time I hadn’t captured a good hawk picture and I really wanted one (check out the Birds page to see some I got since this story unfolded). Unfortunately, they were pretty far away and the light was bad so what you see above was the best I could do. There were about 4-5 crows and they kept up a noisy racket while they dive-bombed the hawk who did his best to ignore them and continue to exude his hawky cool composure. Eventually he decided he had enough and he flew off, doing his best to look like it was his idea so the crows wouldn’t think they were successful in their efforts. You know how crows get. So full of themselves.
It got me thinking about their behavior. What is it about hawks that sets the crows off? I live near an Audobon wildlife preserve so I have the great privilege of seeing a lot of different birds and they seem to get along fairly well, in that aloof bird kind of way. Certainly not hanging out together like best buds, but I don’t see this kind of rancor between other bird species. I did extensive research (aka typing “why don’t hawks and crows like each other” in Google) and discovered that this behavior is called “mobbing” and is a common defensive maneuver for smaller birds to drive away a predator. It’s generally done by smaller, more agile birds who can work as a group to drive away a larger, less agile bird. It is eerily reminiscent of the way girls acted in high school when I wanted to ask one for a date.
This raises other questions for me that I’m too lazy to “research” (plus it’s more fun to speculate while wallowing in my ignorance). How do the crows know the hawk is a predator? Did they learn it in crow school? I picture a bunch of little crows sitting in a circle with the teacher crow (wearing a graduation cap, natch) pointing at an easel with a picture of a hawk with a red line through it. Or is it because hawks just look mean? Is there just some instinctual revulsion of hawks deeply embedded in the crow DNA that sets them off when they see one? Kind of like when any sentient being sees Kenneth Copeland for the first time.
Is this instinctual trigger limited to birds? How about us humans? How are we doing in this area? Am I the only one that’s noticed that people aren’t really getting along all that well in our country? We fly along in our flock, all happy and secure until we see a hawk and then we start screaming out, “Caw! Caw!” and dive-bomb his face until he flies away. Is this a way to live? Is this how we want our country to be?
I meet with a group of men on Tuesday mornings. We spend time in prayer and bible study and we truly care about each other and have seen each other through difficult times over the more than two decades we’ve been meeting together. Our group contains both hawks and crows, and if my metaphor is too obscure, let me be more clear: conservatives and liberals. We avoid talking about politics for the most part because, quite frankly, we’re dealing with more important topics. But I also feel like we’re skirting around some big issues that are happening in our society because we don’t want to spoil what is a great time with potentially contentious discussion. One of the guys recommended we go through a series on civil discourse developed by the Episcopal Church. You can find it here:
https://www.churchnext.tv/library/instruments-of-peace-a-guide-to-civil-discourse/109671/about/
We’re only about half way through it, but it’s triggered some great discussions and I’ve learned a lot already. It’s easy to make assumptions about “the other side” when you’re not listening and just want to keep yelling, “Caw! Caw!” until they fly away (and let’s face it, that’s not an unfair characterization of a lot of the political discourse right now). The phrase that has really stuck with me is, “Respond, don’t react.” and I realize that I’ve spent far too much time over the last four years reacting to what others have said, rather than responding by asking respectful questions and making a genuine effort to learn from the other side. How do we get to that space? I’m still learning, but my next post is going to explore one thing I’ve done recently that has helped me a lot. Unplugging.
