In May of 1988, just after the birth of Robert, my wife and I were doing some spring cleaning in the yard. Picking up paper and raking up winter debris. My wife reached down to pick up a small bundle of pink paper that was lying at the base of one of our big fir trees. When she touched it, it rolled over and gave her a tiny but startling squeak. My wife screamed and fell back onto the ground. She called to come see. My curiosity was piqued, and I rushed over to see this tiny little bird who did not even have feathers yet.
You see, the pink paper turned out to be a baby crow that must have been born this morning and pushed out of the nest by an older sibling. It looked so weak and helpless just lying there. My first thought was to get this bird back in its nest. I looked up our giant fir tree and realized I was never going to get him back there.
My next thought was, let’s raise him. So the bird whose name became Merlin was moved into the house, and a great adventure was started. I had no idea what crows ate in the wild, so I got on the phone and got hold of every organization and bird society that I could think of and asked them what I needed to do to feed and care for this little bird. Most told me it was too young and I could never keep him alive.
I then phoned the Ministry of Environment office in Campbell River and got a man on the line who understood crows, and he helped with many things. He had a great knowledge of crows and told me what the wild crow’s diet consisted of and how a mother crow would feed it to her young. This involved the chewing up of insects and bugs; thank god for little food processors. I don’t remember the name of the fish and game guy, but he was awesome.
So, Merlin the crow, got a nice warm nest area right beside the wood heater where he would be warm at night, and he got constant care all day long. We kept Merlin comfortable at night, and through much trial and error, we got him to eat, and over the next few months, he grew into a full-grown crow. He lived on a perch in our living room and was very inquisitive about everything. If a person he had not seen before walked in, Merlin would tilt his head from side to side, checking them out, and then, with a loud caw, he would launch himself towards the visitor and, with flashing wings, would land upon their head for a better look. This came as a great surprise to many of our visitors. This suited my humour.
Merlin was very curious about Robert and would sit close if Rob was on the couch; he seemed to almost smile as he remained close. To this day, Rod has a connection to crows, some come right up to him and lets him pet them.
By the fall, Merlin went everywhere with me, both in the house and out in the yard. He loved being outside and would spend hours hanging out in the yard. As fall came and winter was getting close, Merlin asked me to take him outside, where we were greeted by many Crows in our fir trees, all cawing and making other crow sounds. Merlin was cawing back and getting very excited, then all at once, the other crows flew into the air and started to fly away, and Merlin flew up to join them.
As he was leaving, Merlin flew around our yard a couple of times and then flew off with the other crows cawing away, almost like he was saying goodbye. He visited several times over the next few years, then we moved, and I lost contact with him. I hope all is well with Merlin; he was a true friend of mine.