Bill's Birds

My neighbor Bill is fascinated by birds. He read about how smart crows are, and he decided he wanted a pet crow. Not the kind that sits in a cage inside, but a wild one that would swoop down when he called it, and he would feed it nightcrawlers, and it would be "cool". And just when he decided to do that, some crows nested in one of the 60 foot pine trees on our street, right at the top. Bill's plan was to wait until the crow babies were fledglings, and then send up a neighbor (who was a roofer) up to the top of the tree with a gunny sack, to nab a fledgling and bring it down. Bill would feed it and show it how to fly, and it would decide that Bill was ok and come and visit regularily.

Then one day Bill was out checking on the chick's progress, and along swoops a Great Horned Owl, and sat in the tree opposite the nest, and started eyeing the chicks. The owl had it's own plans for the chicks, and Bill decided to take action. He got his pellet gun, cranked it up, and shot it in the general direction of the owl, thinking he'd scare it off. Much to his dismay, the owl fell like a sack of feathers out of the tree, plop, plop, plop, hitting every branch on the way down.

Bill ran over to look at it--it wasn't dead, he'd hit it somehow in the wing. So he got some welder's gloves and a dog crate, stuffed the owl into the crate, went to the pet store, bought a bunch of mice, and kept the owl overnight, feeding it mice (which it ate). The next day he took it outside, opened the crate, the owl flew 10 feet and then walked back. Bill put it back in the crate and the owl did the same thing the next day. By day three Bill decided "this wasn't working", so he called the Animal Refuge and told them he had an owl with a damaged wing, maybe because someone had shot it. They told him to bring it in, and they a few days later send him a postcard telling him that the owl was doing great and thanking him for rescuing it. Bill said, shaking his head, "At least they didn't give me a plaque or something". As for the crows, he really did tame one, but it fell victim to some virus and he hasn't tried again, being somewhat demoralized by the whole thing. Bill, by the way, was the one that gave us the skunk, though we didn't know it before. But that is for later.

The Raven pic is Painter and Photoshop, btw.