Akiko Watanabe was born and raised in Japan. She studied electrical engineering, Japanese art and culture, and English, and became a professional technical translator of English and Japanese. In 1981 she moved to the San Francisco Bay Area where she and her husband share their home with their large family of rescued cats, who are often the models for her
Karen Bondarchuk, assistant professor of art, will be one of about 30 members of Western Michigan University's Gwen Frostic School of Art faculty and staff who'll display pieces in the annual art faculty exhibit, which opened on Thursday and runs through Dec. 23. The works will range from oil on canvas and mixed media to sculpture and, well, crows. Karen
©Jutta Maue Kay Jutta Maue Kay is a German native with a passion for human rights and conservation. She has been all over the world, and currently resides in Vancouver, where her newest subjects are in vast abundance. The images she captures of the Ravens and Carrion Crows of the Pacific Northwest are truly special. Each one is infused with
If it is raining and gloomy where you are, then it is time to snuggle up in your favorite blanket, make some popcorn, and watch a really good (or awesomely bad) movie to celebrate Halloween. Ravens, Crows, and black feathered birds of all kinds have appeared in movies since film was invented. Their voices and presence enable the film creators
The scarecrow is commonly associated with modern references like the Wizard of Oz and Batman, but its original purpose was to discourage birds such as crows or magpies from disturbing and feeding on recently cast seed and growing crops.The earliest reference is in Japanese lore (circa 700 AD) in which a Kuebiko is depicted as adiety which knows everything of the world from its unmoving location among the fields.
It is the time when the crows begin to form small roosting groups in the evening. Observers may note flights of crows all heading in one direction in late afternoon/evening or gathering in a group in the treetops. These gatherings are generally much smaller that the large winter communal roosts and we presume they
The raven as the icon of black beauty, primordial intelligence, mystery and the old ones. Is the etymology of corvid derived from the ancient Proto-Indo European seed sound kos, for shout? That would seem appropriate ravens for shouting. Marketing as the shout, raven-style. But it's the sound of the kraaak and croak that reaches to the heart of the word and the story "“ and running the linguistic gauntlet for several thousand years, the sounds of the black one, the ravening clan, that first bespeak the legend.
A "˜murder' of crows is based on the persistent but fallacious folk tale that crows form tribunals to judge and punish the bad behavior of a member of the flock. If the verdict goes against the defendant, that bird is killed (murdered) by the flock.
Meri C Fox-Szauter has been observing one flock of crows for almost a decade, working from her car studio every day at Acadia National Park, Maine in the North-East USA. Her break through work in drawing crows came a few winters ago when they would land on the asphalt, "...they would fluff out their skirts and become crowbergs. That inspired
no pooping alllowed One of the oddest old adages states that getting a headful of bird poo is actually quite a lucky event. We believe this has more to do with the odds of it occurring (one in a million) than it has anything to do with the conditioning properties of the poo itself. The amount of luck present in
The Jungle Crow (Corvus macrorhynchos) is a crow (or Karasuçƒ in Japanese) specific to Southeast Asia, and most prevalent in Japan. They are slightly larger than the Carrion Crow, and are affectionately called Corvus Growus Biggust by some locals. The Corvus japonensis, or large billed crow, is just one of 11 subspecies of Corvus Macrorhynchos. Some of these subspecies are
Both in the air and on the ground there is an irrepressible jauntiness about jackdaw movements. Yet perhaps the most useful distinguishing feature of this intensely sociable bird is its voice. The full range of calls is complex, although the best known is a monosyllabic, almost dog-like yap, of which the first part of the name is descriptive. Jackdaws make
