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DAVID BENTLEY'S WEEKLY COLUMN |
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FALSE ALARMS
Early one morning, I was awakened by the noise of a crow. It was quiet except for those grating caws, so I peeked out my window to see what the fuss was about. As I observed the situation, two crows quietly pecked at the ground, scrounging for tasty morsels, while a third crow spent more time barking at the other two than searching for food. Was it hurt? Was it angry? Was it a bully? Unsure, I continued to watch. The crow pecked once or twice, and then cawed and cawed and cawed at the other two crows. At first they ignored the noise, quietly searching for food. The longer the cawing continued, however, the more nervous the other two crows became. They focused less on finding food, and began to warily watch each other as well as the noisy one. A sudden move by any one of the three brought a flurry of flapping feathers from the other two. Then, for no discernible reason, one of the quiet crows charged the other. With frantic hopping and wing flapping, they fluttered into the air chasing one another in a circuitous flight to the shed roof. The first bird preened its feathers on the roof's peak, while the other crow tried to get from the edge of the roof to the top. Because the roof was tin, it took tremendous effort for the bird to hop, flap, and claw its way upward. Then, at the top of the roof, momentum caused it to slide down the other slope like a giant slalom. Reaching the lower edge, the crow spread its wings and flew back to the bottom of the roof and began a new ascent. Eventually reaching the peak, the crow began to hop toward its preening adversary. Just as the crows were a wing span apart, the preener flew to another yard with its exhausted companion still in pursuit. Meanwhile, the noisy crow was silently feasting alone in my yard. Life is like that. We pay so much attention to the false alarms of fear mongers that we end up fighting frivolously while ignoring the task at hand.
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SAN JUAN ISLANDER © 2008 |
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