Bloody Crows

My friend Rob will be in hospital for about 8 more days then probably a month or more off work. Initially I thought that his hip replacement was one of the types which is giving major health problems for recipients. Not so. It seems that the problem is/was that he has somehow acquired an infection and the operation was to drain infected fluid (about one litre), remove the 'new' metal ball joint and replace it with a temporary ball containing specialised antibiotics. When things are better he will receive another permanent joint. Meantime he is on heavy pain killers and and continuous antibiotic feed. When he is able to return home he will have a PICC line feed of antibiotics daily replenished by a visiting nurse.

I feed local birds daily and Magpies and Mudlarks will come very close and eat from my hands. Not so with Crows (Ravens). Even after years of feeding the same group of birds, the Crows still do not trust me. When I place a foam plastic meat tray with meat scraps out on the lawn they are very apprehensive about taking meat from the tray. They will circle the tray for literally minutes, shying away at the slightest movement of the tray in the breeze. Eventually the tray will be upended by a brave Crow and then they will eat the scraps. I have given this much thought and here is my hypothesis.....

I believe that Crows are the bad boys of the local bird world. They are often chased off by other smaller birds. They don't mix with other birds and raid smaller birds' nests for eggs. For some reason most people don't like them either. Is this why they don't trust anyone? I reckon it is so.