City nature study...

I missed the bus this morning.


I was on my way to the grocery store, and delayed my departure too much, and arrived just too late, so that I had to wait 20 minutes for the next one. The temperatures are below freezing, there is snow and ice on the ground (and the bench at the bus stop), so decided to walk a bit to stay warm.

As I walked along the snow-packed sidewalk, something black floated in front of my face, falling from above. I glanced up and saw a crow sitting on a branch about 20 feet above me. Looking down, I saw that what had fallen was a bit of bark, and the sidewalk was littered with more of it.

While I watched, the crow peeled more bark from a dead branch, pecking at what he found. I suppose there were insects or worms of some kind. I watched him for at least ten minutes, a black bird in a blackened tree, against the stark white sky and whiter snow. A few fellow crows were in trees nearby, engaged in similar winter meal-foraging.

If I hadn't missed the bus, I'd have missed this, and never been the wiser.

I wonder if anyone else, walking in the hard-packed snow, will notice the little pile of bark on the sidewalk? And I wonder if they will wonder how it came to be there?