Bill and Juanita, owners of Allenspark Lodge B&B, are living their dream...

running a successful business and riding as often as possible.



Tuesday, April 17, 2018

Bloody Murder

Wow!

That was one of those once in a lifetime moments.

It had just stopped snowing for a minute, so I ran outside to take some trash out.  (No, that was not the once in a lifetime part, smart @$$).

As I was walking back into the lodge, I heard a crow screaming LOUDLY!  I looked across the street just in time to see what I thought was 2 crows mating, locked in an amorous embrace, drop from the sky and hit the ground about 30 feet from me.  As the crow continued screaming, I caught a flash of lighter colored feathers and realized one of the crows was a hawk.

Then I heard some more crows cawing. and 10 or 20 crows flew down out of the sky and began attacking the hawk, while screaming themselves.

I ran to the door and yelled for Juanita to come FAST, without taking my eyes off of the ongoing rescue operation.

By the time Juanita got to the door there were over 100 crows screaming bloody murder and darting out of the sky taking turns attacking the hawk.  The hawk seemed to decide dinner was off and fled the scene.   All of the crows swarmed him in pursuit, still screaming bloody murder (Except for dinner, who got up, limped around for 30 seconds or so, and then flew off in the other direction.)

The raucous cacophony of crow calling gradually faded as the black cloud of birds pursued their intended quarry with a single minded purpose, off into the distance. 

I stood, heart pounding, and realized 2 things about myself.

1)  I will stop and turn my car around to keep from running over one of these birds lest his whole family decides to take me out.

and

2)  I really have no idea how crows mate.

Bill


7 comments:

  1. That's hilarious... and amazing. I often see ravens and hawks fighting mid-air around where I live. I've never seen them hit the ground or get rescued by so many kinsmen.

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  2. Bill, you are so funny! Looking forward to my annual visit to the lodge this weekend, with all my girlfriends!

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  3. I witnessed another screaming bloody murder in Littleton yesterday! Not quite as amazing, but a red-tailed hawk swooped down and grabbed a rabbit. Rabbit was screaming, and hawk flapping and hanging on until it was dead...We are overrun with bunnies, so please come back here to hunt, mr.Hawk......ann & roy

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  4. Supposedly the group name for crows is a murder lol. Glad to see the bully hawks getting some back - they took out several of my best hens this winter.

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  5. And a group of crows is called a "murder"...which seems even more fitting now ��

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  6. 😂 Amazing!!! I LOVE crows!! They mourn their dead with scold calls and, apparently, defend their own, too. I love this little antidote! I have even more respect for them now.

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