Scare Crows?

  A couple of days ago, a large flock of crows flew over the house.  I should not say "flock" here but rather "murder" or "congress" as those are the collective nouns for a large mass of these birds.  Call me lazy but it is easier to stick with the old standby of "flock of birds" instead of trying to remember the numerous different names attributed to different birds.  Each type of bird has its own cutesy title.  While this makes for a flowery speech it does little to signify anything in everyday life.  I can only imagine the lengthy explanation each time I would use a term such as "charm of finches" or "kettle of hawks".  Yep, those are both appropriate terms.  Can you imagine?  "I had a kettle of hawks in the yard today"..."What?  You cannot cook hawks!  That is illegal!"  And so the explanation would begin as I would try to assure the concerned onlooker that I meant no harm.  Anyway like I said, a large flock of crows flew over the Little Bayou House.  They were making their usual racket which made me stop gathering firewood long enough to look upwards. Unlike geese, crows do not follow the customary V-formation. They fly anywhere and everywhere they please.  The whole sky was filled with crows.  Some flying higher than others, some flying close together while others were stragglers bringing up the rear.  

  All of the commotion that the birds were creating was picked up by the blue jays.  It seems that they could not be outdone by the raucous crows.  The cacophony brought back memories of being on the farm. Pop raised a good bit of corn to not only feed us, but also feed the farm critters throughout the cold winters.  Acres and acres of corn were planted, tended and harvested.  Some ears were picked early while the kernels were tender and sweet, other ears were left to dry in the field. Those dried ears were harvested and saved for seed for the next year and for feed for the chickens, cows and hogs. Those dried ears were also what attracted the crows. With all of his cornfields, I never once remember a scarecrow being placed out to shoo the birds from raiding the corn. The functionality of scarecrows must be pure myth!  Whenever Pop (or any other farmer) heard a flock of crows nearing the field, he would grab his shotgun and make haste through the woods to the fence row.  There he would sit until the crows decided a meal would be tasty. Then...Pop would let loose.  Boom!  Squawks and black feathers would fill the air.  That, my friends, was our scarecrow!  It worked.  The crows would leave the field to find a less dangerous diner.  This may seem cruel by today's standards but back then it was called survival.  If the fields were left to be ravaged by the birds, kids and farm animals would go hungry.  That was just a fact.  

  Back to those scarecrows...we did occasionally make one.  It was not to be used in the fields but as a fall decoration for the annual Halloween carnival that was held at the local school.  For the longest time, I never made the connection that the stuffed chap was supposed to actually be a farm tool.  It was just a cute decoration that Mom would whip up using Pop's old clothes and some hay from the barn.  To be honest, I don't think any bird would be scared of something like that anyway!