Blue Wall Weekly: August 8, 2022

A half-dead pine, lower limbs rotted half away, silhouettes against Jocassee’s summer sky. A bird alights, dark as a black hole, dark silhouette perched on dark silhouette. “Uh huh, uh huh” it calls like a recalcitrant child. It’s the signature sound of a fish crow, and this one is joined in the canopy of pine by a second, third, and fourth bird. The tone changes from call to conversation. Like retirees gathered around the poker table they discuss the weather, fishing, the comings and goings of park guests looking to cool off in Jocassee waters. Eventually one crow gets his feathers ruffled and flies off. The eavesdropper goes for the camera to get the perfect shot of three crows silhouetted on a bare branch against a summer sky. The other birds give a chorus of “uh huh, uh huh,” and they, too, fly away, but in the opposite direction. ~K

DID YOU KNOW?