Crows

Who says mankind is bad for wildlife?  Certainly not the crows.  You see them everywhere but especially along the highways and byways of this country.  These handsome birds with their black feathers like oiled leather uniforms guard the kerbs and verges, feeding of the mashed remains of whatever is killed by the passing vehicles.  Rabbits, foxes, badgers and cats, it’s all the same to them.

They hop in and out of the traffic as the dipper nips in and out of the fast flowing stream.  Their stunts are death defying, a morsel here, some entrails there, with just sufficient at each grab to make it worthwhile.

They live between life and death, between the filthy pitch and the relative lushness of the reservations and verges.  They dice with death and sail close to the wind but one day, like Icarus, they will fly too close to the speeding traffic that will ultimately kill them and in a final fitting testimony, they will be eaten by their comrades.