On the afternoon of Tuesday, August 26, I was driving north toward
Harrisonburg on Port Republic Road when I came to the intersection with Neff
Avenue.
The immediate area around the eastern side of Port Republic Road at that
intersection is still open land but the traffic volume is often high because of
all
the housing occupied by James Madison University students not far away on all
sides. The light was red and I came to a stop behind a school bus. My
attention was caught by a crow which came floating over the school bus from my
right.
It was very hot outside at the time and I had the windows up and the air
conditioner set on high fan to keep cool, so I did not hear the bird call and
have no way of knowing whether it was a Fish Crow or an American Crow; either
species could be in that area. The crow went over the bus's roof just a few
inches up, gliding, and then matters took an even more surprising turn. The
bird's glide path suddenly angled down more sharply. There was no traffic
coming
from the other direction at that instant, which was a good thing because the
bird's path could easily have led it to be struck by an oncoming car. The bird
hit the pavement in the other lane chest first and open-beaked, and then
either bounced or scooted forward a very short distance--I thought maybe it had
spotted some small roadkill and was picking it up, but its bill never closed.
And then it just sat there on the pavement! The light changed, and I had to
move forward with the traffic, but I was able to see the first two cars to come
the other way have to take evasive action, swerving to their left, to avoid
running over the crow, which was near the far side of that lane. The bird did
not move before I had to be out of sight.
Either this was a crow that had become so sophisticated about traffic it was
courting disaster, or it was sick--with West Nile virus? Either way, it was
an eerie moment, as if the right ordering of creation had been jarred.
John Irvine
Harrisonburg, VA
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