Mornings... Of Crows (& Ravens), Creativity, and Consciousness
A caffeine induced rambling journey into the source of ideas and creative freedom
This piece started as a simple introduction to our crow and raven friends… and The Crazy Crow Lady of Santa Clarita.
Then, the caffeine hit some neural receptors and the guy behind my eyes got excited!!!
Three Sizable Birds
Rise up this morning, smiled with the rising sun
Three little birds pitch by my doorstep
Singing sweet songs of melodies pure and true
Saying, "This is my message to you-ou-ou"
- Bob Marley, Three Little Birds
For the past few months, nearly every morning when we take the dog out (or dogs - currently we are watching my oldest child’s dog while his leg heals), Deb meets up with three crows and an occasional raven.
We have far less control than we care to admit and
far more control than we choose to exercise.
This gives Deb a great deal of joy and has led me to dub her, The Crazy Crow Lady of Santa Clarita. The truth is, I too derive a great deal of joy in watching the interaction. I’ve always found ravens and crows to be fascinating and intelligent animals. I recommend this Ted Talk - The Intelligence of Crows.
Deb brings a bag of unsalted peanuts, raw almonds, raw cashews, and dog food. The crows take up roost in various positions around a railing at the condo complex. From light posts, roofs, and trees they watch her. She shows them the bag of food and then places a few items on a railing to some stairs that go down to the sidewalk.
On many occasions, when she comes out, a single crow is waiting. As she comes up the walk, it will start cawing and soon after the two other crows show up. She places the food and then walks 10 to 15 feet away.
Two of the crows will drop down to pick up peanuts or other food items while Deb is a fairly close. One of them has such a strong preference for cashews that it will knock the peanuts and almonds to the ground. Dog food seems to be universally liked. One of the smaller crows will only come down if Deb is perhaps 20+ feet away and is not directly looking at the railing.
They are keenly aware of where Deb’s gaze is directed.
The other day we were a bit late coming out and noticed that all three crows were on a roof a couple buildings away from ours. They followed Deb, hopping and flying from roof to roof, as she walked to the front.
I was able to get a few photos of the crows. Deb is processing the images and I will post a link in the future to some interesting photos.
And then, there is Bari, the Raven.
Perhaps once a week or so, a pair of Ravens will show up. Deb has named one of them Bari. It is a name that works whether Bari is a male or female. We now suspect Bari is a female because of her vocalizations. Two weekends ago we attended a presentation on local birds by a ornithologist who indicated that only female Ravens make a certain chortling noise - something Bari has done while taking food from Deb.
Bari is far more bold than the crows. She will fly directly up to Deb and land on the railing, an arm’s length away. She doesn’t take the food from Deb’s hand - yet - though she appears quite comfortable.
While Deb feeds and talks to her, Bari will stop, fluff out her neck feathers and chortle. Deb takes this vocalization as having a friendly and comfortable feel to it. Bari seems pleased.
Ravens are large. Deb has said, while she feels no fear, there is an undeniable exhilaration watching this large bird soar directly at her - very intentionally - and having it suddenly angle its wings and come to an abrupt stop two or three feet in front of her.
Deb will sit on the ground while Bari walks around her picking up whatever food Deb puts out. Bari favors the peanuts and the cashews.
Bari’s partner never comes down, staying on a local light pole watching all of this transpire.
When Bari does show up, the crows are NOT thrilled. They attempt to drive Bari away by dive bombing her. And, there are times they are successful. But other times, Bari pays no attention to them.
Deb is trying, unsuccessfully, to teach them to share. She places food for the crows in one location and food for Bari directly in front of her. But when Bari has her mind made up, she drives the crows away from their food and takes everything. Eventually, Bari flies off and the crows resume their feeding.
There is a large colony of Ravens at Deb’s Park (no relation to Deb, The Crazy Crow Lady), near where I lived in East LA. They used to dive bomb my Dog Beaux, causing him to chase them from tree to tree. As he chased one, another would dive bomb him. Nothing in this interaction, on either Beaux’s or the raven’s part, seemed anything more than playful. Here is a short video from 2016. I took this after several interactions so both Beaux and the ravens were less engaged in the play.
Factoids
A group of crows is called “A Murder.” A group of ravens is called “An Unkindness” or “A Conspiracy.” That probably relates back to the superstitious notion that they were aligned with evil spirits or a sign portending doom.
Creativity & Consciousness
As indicated in the Ted Talk I linked to above and our interactions, crows and ravens exhibit remarkable creativity and intelligence. They solve problems. They recognize people. For instance, they understand the difference between a sidewalk and a street - just watch how they interact with cars when picking up road kill or other food.
Quails are definitely (and sadly) NOT aware of this.
And crows have consciousness… a great deal of it.
If I believed in a soul, they would have that too. The soul is, after all, just a representation of that thing - the entity that we feel lives inside our head. The little person behind our eyes that travels with, and has some modicum of control, over our physical and mental being.
But, neuroscience, brain injuries, and other demonstrated examples show that what we call consciousness - that thing living “behind our eyes” - doesn’t live behind our eyes at all. It is a conglomeration of electro-chemical impulses from various regions in the brain, that combine to create what we refer to as us.
I’m avoiding a more detailed “free will” conversation at this point but we’ll get there one day. I struggle a bit with it, as we have NO understanding of how the thoughts we have truly originate. Why did X thought arise on a whim versus Y thought?
Suffice to say, regardless of what we ultimately discover about free will and consciousness, I often say, “We have far less control than we care to admit and far more control than we choose to exercise.”
So, I believe in a type of free will. But from an observable scientific standpoint, it is far less free than I am comfortable with. If you want some mind-bending insight into the topic, the following Nova Documentary, “Your Brain: Who’s in Control?” is pretty good.
About writing, songwriting, creativity and free will
This electrical/chemical understanding of what we can observe about how our brains work coincides with my belief about creativity as an exercise of the brain, rather than the less tangible idea that we “tap into” creative ideas.
There are songwriters (and writers in general) who talk about songs as living in the ether (they come from God or the Creative Consciousness) and we simply have to learn to “listen” to the universe. This, of course, begs the question as to why crappy songwriters always write crappy songs. Is this an antennae issue? There is no reason to believe that.
As one works to improve their material ability to present their creative ideas they generally create more creative things. ie: this is both motor function and improving your neural pathways ability to move ideas from the abstract to the tangible. Whether practicing your instrument, learning to draw or paint, writing more frequently and with intent, etc, all of this occurs in the brain.
This is different than inspiration. People draw inspiration from nature, from their religious beliefs, from a great night of sex, or from beautiful relationships. But how we draw inspiration has little bearing on whether the ideas are generated outside of us and come into the brain or “speak” to our soul.
My advice in this area is to NOT acquiesce the flimsy self-agency we MAY have to outside forces. If you want to create more and better creative output, recognize that it is YOU creating that thing. Neither Yahweh, Allah, The Law of Attraction, or Cosmic Consciousness is solving this challenge for you.
Relinquish that myth and you get the ultimate freedom.
Because now, you can do the work to improve and not have to wonder why the ether, God, The Secret, etc. is NOT speaking to you.
Agree? Disagree? I’d love to hear your thoughts.
Below my signature are a few additional, short, videos you may find interesting.
Thanks for joining me on this journey.
With Love and Gratitude,
Matthew Moran
February 26, 2024
A visiting hawk
There are a plethora of birds of prey in our neighborhood. Hawks, kestrels, and owls, among them.
On this day, a hawk disrupted Deb’s feeding and the crows were having none of it.
Here are our crows dive-bombing a hawk on one of “their” light poles.
And the same hawk flying directly over me.
We noticed yesterday that a Hawk has begun building a nest in a tree in our complex - about 100 feet from where Deb feeds her friends. We are unsure what this will mean to our morning feedings.
It is interesting because the tree is bare but we within a few weeks, that hawk’s nest will be invisible - well hidden by leaves and branches.
Have you ever been hiking and wondered what creatures are watching you that you are totally unaware of? I like that idea.
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Ahh ... caffeine. My favourite drug (these days).
I forever remain impressed with your creativity and energy! I was hoping to surprise you by attending your concert, but other events intervened. Hope it went well :-)
J