Crows of Martin Top

One of our deacons shared how he had witnessed a crow cross a road in Clitheroe by means of a zebra crossing. It was probably a coincidence, a case of being in the right place at the right time. For any other bird, this is certainly the case; for the crow, there is just that possibility that it had observed others crossing there, and noted that the traffic gave way. Crows, you see, are highly intelligent. They are said to be more so than primates; their brains might be smaller but the neurons are more tightly packed.

As I walked to chapel in the spring, several dozen of them starting squawking and flying about while I walked under those ancient trees on Howgill Lane in which they were sitting. Carrying an umbrella, they may have assumed it was a gun, and they my likely target. A friend of mine with a firearms license recalls how they watch for him with the gun; if he carries it, they fly off; if he does not have it, they sit still in their branches, peering down. In Luke 12:24, the Lord Jesus says:

Consider the ravens [a type of crow], for they neither sow nor reap, which have neither storehouse nor barn; and God feeds them. Of how much more value are you than the birds?

God might value people over crows, but I wonder if crows are smarter than us. They know who feeds them; we think we feed ourselves.

He gives to the beast its food, and to the young ravens that cry. Psalm 147:9 (NKJV)