Welcome to the Chilliwack Crows  

Crows are amazing birds. They love to play with other birds other than crows and they love to be social. Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine myself as a bird lover, but here I am, and I can’t get enough of my feathered friends. When I wake up in the morning, the first thing I do is say high guys. These birds are my high guys, and I enjoy interacting with them. Crows have a lot of personality and are very cute because they like to hop around. Crows are super intelligent as well. I would have to say I am pretty sure that they are smarter than most. I would rather talk to a crow on any given day than have to talk to some woke human.

Who am I? 

Hi, my name is Stacey and I am 43 years old and live in the Sardis part of the City of Chilliwack, BC, Canada. Back in the 90’s, Chilliwhack was spelled differently. The City derives its name from the Halq’eméylem word “Ts’elxwéyeqw”, meaning’ ‘going as far as you can go upriver’ in reference to travelling by canoe up the Chilliwack River slough Halq’eméylem is the traditional language of the Stό:lō (People of the River). Growing up in Hope and living in Chilliwack as an adult, I have spent my whole life surrounded by mountains and rivers. I feel very fortunate for this as most people I know now as an adult actually pay to have the luxury of being outdoors on a mountain with a creek and yard to garden. I do not even recall when I was growing up if we even had crows around. I know we had lots of birds. I could never have a bird feeder though because I always had a cat. I think having a pet crow would have been the best pet to grow up with now though.

I’ve been going out every day for the past 5 years or so to watch the crows and their gull pals. I reside in the Fraser Valley’s agricultural region with cornfields on both ends and in the middle of the 2.6 kilometre road I live on, malls across the street, a stream, and a lovely bird sanctuary directly across the cornfield. This area is home to a large number of birds. What a great environment for gulls and crows, which are opportunistic and adapted to all of this living.

I am a female who has high functioning autism and these birds to me are like therapy. They make me so happy. I can’t explain it, but I have never been so interested in anything in my whole entire life. Every day I get up and I want to see the birds. I enjoy taking pictures, working on them, and love to read about them and learn about them. So many people in this world have no idea about crows, not even a speck. They all have the stereotypical sad excuse for hating birds: they kill small birds, eat garbage, and bring death, or whatever. I hate it when people make assumptions and create their own thoughts without even taking a moment to learn about this bird that has family and friends. The same goes for the gulls. They have friends and family as well. Where I live, there should be no complaint that is valid about these birds and if you have a problem, have you ever thought that maybe the problem is you and your sad excuse for disliking a bird that lives outside and that is only during the day time, not even over night. 

Many girls hide their autism, sometimes evading diagnosis well into adulthood. These efforts can help women on the spectrum socially and professionally, but they can also do serious harm.