Awww!
Somebody’s opened a crow cafe in London – like a cat cafe, but…you know…with corvids (there’s also a rook and a raven).
Good idea. I like corvids. We had a couple of pet crows when I was a kid. I’ll tell you stories some day (some other day; it’s late and I have to go take a bath).
Their rook probably needs a buddy. Rooks are the sociable ones. You know the old saying: if you see a solitary rook, it’s a crow; if you see a bunch of crows, they’re rooks.
The trees around our house here are alive with rooks and I’ve been awfully tempted to feed them.
Know how you tell the difference? Crows and ravens look pretty much alike, except ravens are bigger and shaggier. But rooks have a strip of unpleasant-looking crusty white flesh where their beaks meet their heads. Thusly:
And on that educational note, I’m off to my bath. Toodle pip.
Posted: April 19th, 2017 under animals, birds, britain.
Comments: 20
Comments
Comment from thefritz
Time: April 19, 2017, 10:16 pm
Toodle pip!
Comment from QuasiModo
Time: April 19, 2017, 11:46 pm
We toss out scraps for the crows here…saw one yesterday flying away with a hot dog :+)
Comment from Jasonius
Time: April 19, 2017, 11:49 pm
Toodle pip…
Now I want to go re watch Red Dwarf.
Smoke me a kipper, I’ll be back in the morning.
Comment from Steve Skubinna
Time: April 19, 2017, 11:50 pm
Crows and ravens give me the willies. One look at those beaks and you know instantly that they evolved specifically to pluck out human eyeballs.
Comment from Deborah HH
Time: April 20, 2017, 12:52 am
What Steve said.
See also: http://www.bartleby.com/101/380.html
I must confess: I have never seen a crow, rook, or raven—and recognized it as such. Buzzards and vultures, though—too much.
Comment from drew458
Time: April 20, 2017, 1:16 am
Deb HH – I think the Turkey Vulture ought to be the official state bird of NJ. We have zillions of them, and we need every one to help eat all the roadkill deer.
Crows we have, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen a raven, though I hear that they are moving into our area. Rooks? Only rooks I’ve ever seen are on a chessboard. I think the bird is a EU critter.
Comment from drew458
Time: April 20, 2017, 1:19 am
Steve – you sound like a Terry Pratchett fan. Death of Rats and his raven pal Quoth. [ I mean, what else would you name a raven, right? ]
Comment from Niña
Time: April 20, 2017, 4:16 am
I’m friends with the Tower’s Ravenmaster on FB, and he’s quite the fan, not surprisingly. I like them, myself. Smart creatures!
Comment from SCOTTtheBADGER
Time: April 20, 2017, 10:21 am
I always think of crows as the S-10 version of the Rook.
Comment from Durnedyankee
Time: April 20, 2017, 2:03 pm
Zat a Lexus Corvid?
Comment from Wolfus Aurelius
Time: April 20, 2017, 2:12 pm
In high school, many years ago, I knew a kid who used the expression “rooked” for “stole,” e.g., “Somebody rooked the wood.” Never heard that expression since. Was it because rooks are known for stealing shiny objects, as crows are? (“Somebody crowed the wood” doesn’t have the same ring, somehow.)
Comment from Ric Fan
Time: April 20, 2017, 3:22 pm
I’ve heard the word rook used to mean cheat — He rooked me.
Comment from Durnedyankee
Time: April 20, 2017, 3:28 pm
@wolf’s + ric, I recall the same. I grew up north of Boston.
Comment from AliceH
Time: April 20, 2017, 4:47 pm
@wolf’s + ric + DurnedY: same, here. My brother used the term a lot (in Wisconsin).
In grade school, we had a sort-of pet crow. It used to fly around just outside the playground area fence, then sit and hop and swoop and caw at us until we tossed over bits of our lunch (which we saved to toss to the crow, of course).
Oh, and rooks do not seem to inhabit the US, so apparently the American Crow which, per wiki, hang around in families of up to 15 individuals, is more sociable than the Euro types.
Also, the way I differentiate crows from ravens is by my initial reaction. If I think/say “wow, that bird is BIG”, it’s a crow. If I think/say “OMG THAT BIRD IS HUGE!”, it’s a raven. 🙂
Comment from Ric Fan
Time: April 20, 2017, 5:02 pm
How come no one has mentioned that a bunch of crows are called a murder of crows? Sort of a cool name. 🙂
Comment from Mr. Dave
Time: April 20, 2017, 5:35 pm
Being rooked was common parlance in the forests of east Texas too.
Comment from Mr. Dave
Time: April 20, 2017, 5:39 pm
I was told, by my elders who bullshitted brilliantly, that for a crow to talk you had to split its tongue.
They also told me that if I put salt on a bird’s tail I could catch it. I was more successful with a bushel basket and a string.
Comment from Formerly known as Skeptic
Time: April 20, 2017, 7:34 pm
AliceH “OMG THAT BIRD IS HUGE!” – You got that right! We had Ravens in the Mojave when I was out there. I referred to them as crows on steroids because they were about 50% larger! A good sized crow is maybe 12 inches tall (?), these buggers had to stand 18! Of course, we had any number of odd animals out there, even burrowing owls.
Comment from Wolfus Aurelius
Time: April 20, 2017, 8:27 pm
The next large black cat I adopt, then, will be known as Rook, Crow, or Raven, depending on how big he is!
Comment from Durnedyankee
Time: April 21, 2017, 1:59 am
Maine vultures.
Consider “the Morrigan” is a crow, not a vulture.
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