Strutter: King of the Crows

Story by Charles and Esther Pierce; Illustrations by Mikki Thompson

It was early spring in the woods when a large, shiny, black crow strutted down our pine needle driveway on our arrival at our cottage on the lake. We named him Strutter.

Strutter adopted us as neighbors and friends and flew over each day from his home in a swamp near us. He liked the food we began to put out each day. We fed him French fries, toast, chocolate donuts and Cheerios.

Soon Strutter began to caw when he wanted a snack. He liked Charles' responding with a clap for each caw. He began to watch us from a perch in a pine tree and would fly down and strut toward his goodies. He was avaricious and would fill his beak with two delicious tidbits, drop them to take three, drop them to take four and fly back to his nest.

Strutter often strutted slowly down our pine needle covered driveway as he did want to attract attention, but he forgot our niece's large cat, which often stalked our innocent birds, chipmunks, squirrels.

One morning he was approaching our yard when the cat, Sweet Pea, stealthily followed him and suddenly grabbed a black tail feather. Strutter jumped so high that the cat lost her balance, dropped the feather and took to the woods. She never again bothered Strutter, who often cawed in a scolding way, as a warning to Sweet Pea.

Later our daughter saw the shiny black feather on the ground, took it, had it framed, and gave it to us as a memory.

Strutter gets drunk on peaches.

One day we emptied a container of spoiled canned peaches onto the roots of a large maple tree growing near our back deck. We were surprised that Strutter tasted them and couldn't stop eating them. He became very drunk and could hardly keep his balance when he kept returning for another taste. When he flew onto an overhanging branch, he was very tipsy and when he cawed it was slurred and not his true caw. For days he searched the pine needles for more peaches.

Another touching part of our experiences with Strutter was his flying ahead of us when we drove out to the marina where we kept our pontoon boat. He would follow us occasionally down the Channel, a stream which went to the post office, or he would return to the cottage and wait for us by the driveway.

Strutter really liked the little car we used just in the summer, but he never acknowledged the car we would drive from Florida. He would follow us only when we were in the small car and he would caw when we parked it in the woods.

Strutter was an early riser and discovered a branch where he could perch and wait for us to get up. He often was impatient and cawed three, four, five caws. Later, after breakfast, he would caw his thanks and Charles would clap as many claps as Strutter gave out caws.

Strutter had a family in the swamp near us, and after he had sampled our goodies he would fly home with a beak full of what was left of the food. Also, he liked to show off to a few other crows, who would fly in hopefully to be fed, but Strutter took charge and would only let them eat after he had first choice. He would chase them away often enough so some days he was alone, as he preferred.

Strutter with his "girlfriends"

We discovered that Strutter had two girlfriend crows and sometimes he would bring them to our yard. They would perch in a pine tree, side by side, and would watch us have our lunch on the back deck. Then, when Strutter flew into the swamp with his full beak, they would hurriedly fly down to eat whatever was left. They were quite shy and truly wild.

We had to leave every fall as it became too cold on the lake. We never knew if Strutter would be there on our return in the spring. We rejoiced to hear him caw to us when we opened the cottage for another summer with our Strutter.

Redisplay This Article in Printer-Friendly Format

<-- Previous • Summaries • Next -->

Summertime in the Belgrades

Contents

Strutter: King of the Crows