I was on my way down to Sal's Milk Shop the other day, when I came across a peculiar sight. Or maybe it was more in the way it sounded. Can something look different if it doesn't sound like it should? I remember one day when I was a kid, they tried playing a different song for the ice cream truck. No kids came out because they didn't recognize the song. It wasn't until some kids who were playing ball hockey saw that it was an ice cream truck and were shouting about it until everyone else clued in as to what the music was for.
This was the same idea, only... birds don't usually make sounds other than their regular songs and chirps, unless perhaps they're old and losing their voice, but this was not the case, as far as I could tell. This was a crow with another song entirely. I didn't recognize what bird this song might belong to, if somehow the crow was imitating another bird, which was a trick I didn't think crows could pull. I might have come to the conclusion that this particular crow had been raised by another family, but since when did birds take after young that was not their own? It was not something I was aware of, but I wasn't going to let that lack of knowledge allow me to dismiss the possibility.
I wanted to get closer to the crow to get a better look, but I didn't want to frighten it. Slowly I placed my right foot a few inches in front of me. When the bird didn't move, I allowed the rest of my body to catch up. This also did not frighten the bird. As I watched it, I started to notice some subtle differences between it and how I know crows to look. Maybe I hadn't really bothered to look at a crow this close before, or maybe my memory is a bit off, but there was something about it's plumage that didn't quite fit.
I wish I had brought my camera with me, but who brings a camera with them to get milk? I'll have to get a book on birds and see what I can find.
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