“The first one was kind of confusing,” Dahlquist said. “It was sitting right in the middle of the area where I toss their food.”
“I noticed it straight away because I’m kind of sensitive about trash going where it belongs,” he added, “but the pull tab being threaded onto the sprig of fir wasn’t normal and I hung onto it.”
The next day, Dahlquist was shocked to find another twig with a soda tab in the same spot: “This is when it dawned on us that the crows were making and leaving them.”
Dahlquist, who has rehabilitated and released several injured crows in the past, had never been thanked so explicitly before.
“It took a couple of days to wrap my head around just how amazing this was,” Dahlquist said. “Not only were our crows leaving gifts, but they had created something beyond. It was crafting.”
Since the exchange of gifts, Dahlquist’s relationship with his crow neighbors has only gotten stronger.
“They’ll follow along when I take my walks, landing on the wires along the way,” Dahlquist said. “The adult male … is very amiable and will fly sometimes within a few feet, swooping by to say, ‘Here I am!’”