One of my nieces, in her forties, now (I've told many of her tales here), has raised a crow from fledgling stage. Saved it from traffic after being hit by a car.
She nursed it back to health, released it several times, does not keep it caged, but it lives with her still. Inside her house at times, poops in the tub. Yes I questioned that having a loose bird in the house thing, but she says he always goes to the tub to poop.
Her crow goes away for a few days every so often, always comes back, comes right up to her with a shiny gift of some sort, usually a beer cap.
When she was a teen, she was this "super Goth type" and difficult, but she has turned into a rescue animal "professional" person with huge accomplishments on her belt.
Like when Hurricane Harvey dropped many feet of rain on Houston in a few days, she packed all her shit and drove down, spent three months to help rescue animals.
She has had this crow around for about twelve years, now. I don't know how long they live, but it always come right up to her after being gone for days at a time. The crow will even allow others to hold him perched as long as she is close. He will eat right out of my hand, for instance. He's a big boy, a very healthy, Indiana corn rat some call them.
Not really teasing her at all, but I've told her many times that all that Goth shit she used to do as a kid; having a freed crow as a friend blows all that kid shit away by miles and that she is now more Goth than ever before. The fact that she wears business pant suits to community meetings at times takes nothing away from her high level of Goth!
She's a treasure and loves helping animals.
One of my nephews, her cousin, lives up near the Michigan border. He's the maple syrup guy I've talked about, extracts, boils down and sells syrup for a living.
On his land, when we visit, we always see these huge black squirrels that are very aggressive, very vocal. They gather and chew you out for walking in their forest. They throw sticks at you for being in their area.
Fun to watch and beautiful! We rarely see those big black ones here in the central part of the state.
Our squirrels here are the smallish red and brown ones and they are more shy, but still a riot and I enjoy having them everywhere.
No hawks here that I have seen, yet, but many owls. I see one of them consistently, but I find dozens of owl pellets when I take the dog out. There seem to be quite a few smallish owls living here. Came up on a female rending a young thrush that was about the same size as she is. She left feet, beak and some feathers when she was done. I here kestrels at night, but haven't seen one yet.
It is a completely different wildlife balance from where we used to live, even though it is only a few miles away. I love our new home!!
Oh, and we have frogs and toads here that sing at night. They keep close to the ponds. There are six large ponds within a short walk, due to the golf course stuff.
