Will loooves rooks. That’s Miyama Garasu in Japanese. He named his band after1 these crows — the Rooks. See! He even made a T-shirt. (The bag came with it as a present from the shop.)
When we talk of2 crows, we don’t think anything special, right? Well, I didn’t, but they are quite interesting. Even normal crows which live in our neighborhood are very clever. They remember people. Sometimes, they attack a person who was once mean to them. Or sometimes, they do something nice. There is a story on YouTube where a little feeds some crows and after a while3 the crows start bringing her presents.
There are also many different kinds that comes to Sendai: Hashibuto Garasu, Hashiboso Garasu, Miyama Garasu, and Kokumaru Garasu. Among them, Will (and also I) love Miyama Garasu. They are always in a flock4. They eat in the rice fields in a group. They fly in a group.
A few years ago, Will and his friend went all the way5 to a far place to see just one, but nowadays we can see many in our neighborhood, especially in the winter.
The other day, we noticed that the electric lines near our house looked different. They were twice as thick as the usual size6.
When we got closer, Holy Cow! So many rooks were sitting on the lines so perfectly. That was an amazing sight!! On the other side of the tower, these dots continued about 30-40 meters. Only on the left side, we counted about 90.
How can they live together like that? I always imagine they must be such nice birds. Otherwise, they can’t stay together all the time, can they?
Actually, when they fly in a flock, you sometimes can see one or two shadows of a smaller size. They are Jackdaws. They are a different species, but the rooks accept them as their friends. Aren’t they really nice?
*Jackdaws ・・・Even though they are crows, some of them have some white parts. You can see our blog in November, 2013. We were talking about them.
