Last summer when it was hitting record temperatures 2 times a day, I would go to the end of Topaz Drive with fresh water for the crow’s squirrels and bunnies. I had a bowl I made sure to clean twice daily just to be safe. I would pack rubber gloves the water in in my bag in bottles and bring a small bottle mixed with dish soap another with rinse water and paper towel, as well I would clean the bench for people walking the trail who wanted to sit down. Every day in the summer the crows watch me clean while they waited to get cat food and or a peanut from me and they must have realized what I was doing and soon I did not have to clean the bench every day, unless I went away for a few days than the cycle would start over, and I would have to remind them what I am cleaning by them watching me clean. Crows are so very smart and love their family most of all. Crows have the longest childhood out OF any bird they can stay with their parents for the first 3-5 years of their life. People like to say birds are not able to have these feelings, but crows are the only bird that stay together as a family unit and come back and visit after they start their own family, so I find that part hard to believe.  

 It was reaching temperatures of up to 40 degrees in the summer of 2021 it was the hottest summer I can remember, and I truly could not even imagine having to be outside all day and night.  

The crows would line up in a pecking order only known to them, but definitely there is some way of order going on and take turn using the water some would drink, and some would bathe. From my reading about birds, I have read that it is important to provide water as dehydration is quite common in young birds. Crows love to have water to dip their food into as well. Crows cannot swim so I was thinking it cannot be easy to drink out of the creek for the newly fledged just learning their wings.  

Leaving a bowl out 24 hours a day was a risk worth taking. Most days there was a little water left but they would use it down to the last drop. Some people on the trail thought it was great and there are always the people who do not know where they live even though they are walking around a cornfield. They hated it so it was no surprise to have to come and pick up the pieces when the bowl was smashed or filled with slurpee. The Birds are not here because of me but I am here because of them hard to believe I know but I am quite sure that the birds were here longer than I ever paid attention to. My sister did tell me they use to call it the crow Olympics when she use to play bingo all the time for the reason there was so many crows flying around in the evening when they would be on break.

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