Crows, Hawks, and Other Totems

I had an interesting experience today; interesting, but not entirely unusual for me. I walked down Marine Avenue toward the Cliff Walk this afternoon, seeing a crow sitting on the fence they've put up to block access to the Walk while they do some major fixing-up and improvements. I had the camera out and got one shot off about 50 feet away from him. Then I started walking closer, but he flew off the fence. But not away from me. He flew toward me and perched on a branch just over my head and a little to my right, not much more than about 5 feet away. And from his perch he proceeded to laugh at me and called two other crows over to join in the fun. This lasted a good 15 minutes, and all four of us had a great time.

I'm serious about this. This kind of thing happens with me and crows a lot. I like crows and they seem to sense it and return the feeling. One time I was walking through a park and there were some crows hanging out on the grass. One of them grabbed a stick in his beak and came over and started hopping around me like a black Lab playing stick. So I decided to play along - I tried to grab the stick away from him. He'd hop around, and if my hand got too near the stick he'd hop up to a tree branch over my head, and the other crows in the group he was in would laugh at me. This went on for a good while until somebody who had been looking on finally came over, and the whole flock of crows took off. The guy was totally amazed, and asked me if he was seeing right and that crow was actually playing stick with me. Yup, he sure was. Because crows and I seem to have an affinity for each other, I adopted Crow as one of my totems. I have the Haida Raven tattooed on my left shoulder in honor of that.

Hawks also seem to tolerate my presence, and sometimes even sit calmly nearby while I photograph them and talk to them. The first time I noticed this was about three years ago when I surprised a male Northern Harrier taking a bath in a bog pool beside Brenton Rd. He got all flustered and hopped up on a tree branch at about my head level and about 10 feet away. He sat and eyed me, and then commenced into his post-bath preening. I didn't have a camera with me that time. Anyhow, he stayed on that branch until a car came, at which point he flew off. Since then I've had numerous similar encounters with hawks, most notably about a year ago when a young Redtail sat in a tree and actually posed for me, ignoring the crows who were mobbing him (crows hate hawks and usually manage to drive them out of their territory, but this hawk just ignored them), and literally posed for my camera. He's sit in one position while I snapped away, then he'd shift and strike another pose. After a while I quit taking pictures and just enjoyed being in the presence of this gorgeous bird, and at that point he figured the session was over and flew off.

So I have an affinity with hawks, too. And I've adopted Hawk as another totem, and have a stylized hawk's eye tattooed over my heart in honor of it.

I don't try to explain or rationalize stuff like this any more, I just accept it and try to do honor to it. I like being out in nature and I like hanging out with the critters there. Native Americans, Siberians, Australian Aborigines, and other peoples around the world adopt animals as totems who come to them in dreams or in waking life. They accept these animals as messengers in their lives and try to learn what such an animal has to teach them. My totems don't seem to appear in my dreams, but they do approach me when I'm out in their territory.

So what am I learning from my totems? Well, I like crows because I think they're natural comedians. They like to laugh, and they definitely like to play. I like to laugh and play, too, so I guess we were naturally fitted to each other. Hawks I'm not as sure about. I'm still studying them to see what it is they have to teach me. I know they're infinitely patient, sitting in a tree or floating so still in the air, looking for prey. I can be patient, but I know I have a lot of room for improvement. So maybe I hang out with hawks to learn patience.

In any case, I like hanging out with my feathered buddies. And lately I've been having more opportunities to observe Turkey Vultures. I don't think we've achieved totem status yet, but I'm watching and waiting to see where it might lead.

Sorry, no picture of the day. Blogger seems to be busy, and I have to get to bed. Later!