Walking along the beach, I am struck by the silence after the storm; the howling of the wind, the foam on the sea and the crashing of the waves on the shore are only a memory. As a reminder of what has been, a ragged line high on the beach of dark driftwood, strings of seaweed, piles of shells and the remains of a once proud herring gull remains.
His belly now swells blindingly white, the soulless wings buried in the sand. It smells of destruction and salt and salt.
“A crow caws that it is finished,” Jan Wolkers once recalled. I see one walking in the sand in front of me; the sunlight splashes off his shiny black gravedigger suit in blue, purple and green.
But this crow caws with pleasure; He steps impatiently along the tide line and pecks at the washed up shrimps and cracked open sword sheaths, ‘all you can eat’ is his seafood banquet today.
Black crows (Corvus corone), smaller cousins of the raven, are among our largest songbirds and can be found as a resident bird all year round in both rural and urban areas. Their social and intelligent behavior, great adaptability and intelligence make crows one of the most successful and widespread bird families worldwide.
Carrion crows, which stay together as a pair for life, feed on insects, fruit, eggs, young birds and small rodents and form a stable Dutch population of 100,000 breeding pairs. This despite their place on the national exemption list on the basis of which land users are allowed to combat crows – a practice that the Council of State questioned at the beginning of this year (April 19, 2023).
Crows are considered to be among the smartest of all birds, with an intelligence comparable to that of primates. Crows recognize faces, can connect cause and effect, make and use tools to obtain food, warn each other of danger, can learn words, store and retrieve food, are aware of the here and now (primary consciousness) and can count.
All this happens in a brain the size of a walnut, which has a completely different architecture than our brain and lacks the mammalian layered cerebral cortex (neocortex) associated with higher cerebral functions. However, it is becoming increasingly clear that the unlayered crow brain also contains structures that make complex brain functions possible.
So you have been warned; the carrion crow in your street recognizes you, he probably knows where you live, what walk you take the dog with and which neighbor you talk to for just a little longer.