A special visit on Earth's Day

Following from my previous post, I am so relieved to report that Perses' paws seem intact and fully functioning at first sight. He is still limping (although not as pronounced today). He paid me a visit to the garden at lunch time today, much to my delight. These interactions have become rare - I assume due to the nesting season. With fledgling time upon us very soon, I suspect this will become an even rarer occurrence. But today we spent some time together, in the present. We shared some treats, and I could look at him properly ( and he could look at a very tired me!).

Perses and I, today at lunch time

I am not sure if this is a crow thing, but they all hate when I look into their eyes, and Perses is no exception - although he is becoming more and more comfortable with my gaze. Perses is not scared of me if I am alone in the garden, but if anyone else is around he will fly away. He was rushing today, but spent a couple of minutes drinking water and wetting the treats - some minced beef with tasty mealworms, and a mini cheese cracker - a favourite of his that I only offer during special occasions because they are too salty! 

I guess having him in the garden was a special occasion. :)

He took off with everything in his beak, I honestly do not know how he does it!!

On my walk this morning I have noticed one of the houses near Perses and Asteria's nest has put up some plastic netting across most of the fence and quite high up too - the very kind of netting that could easily tangle into a crow's leg should they venture that way. This upset me. People know plastic netting is the worse type of netting to use. It's bad for the environment, bad for wildlife, could lead to injury, entrapment and/or the loss of animal life. 

People are really naïve if they think netting will protect whatever they are trying to protect. Whoever did that has also inadvertently supported the plastic industry. On Earth day. Well done... (that's irony by the way). 

Perses with some treats

Animals are resourceful, and I am so glad they are. I celebrate their boldness, their will to pursue with fierceness whatever they are invested in, above all I envy their freedom. But I don't envy their position on this Earth because of mankind.

Mankind is destructive. When we feel insecure and/or fearful of something that falls outside of the norm we want it gone. We also want to fix everything that's outside of the norm because 'that's not normal'. This usually results in a barbaric war against nature itself. We often forget that nature is what made us, and in nature we live and will die - our houses may be located in an urban jungle made mostly of brick and mortar, but we still crave the sun on our face, the breeze on our hair and the green of the trees in our minute landscapes in order to feel alive.

I teach my children to be responsible, to reuse, to put the rubbish in the bin, to respect the world around us. All animals are sentient beings and have a role in this ecosystem - this is why they exist in the first place, so making decisions that include their safety is almost as important as not using plastic netting. Crows. They are almost as clever as us - I dare to say, possibly more, because they know not to damage their environment. After all, they need it to survive, and us humans already do quite a lot of damage.