Friends of Little Rocky Run Tales About Our Watershed, Story 4

A Crow's Funeral                                           Some fear that the West Nile Virus will wipe out the local crow populations wherever it grabs a foothold.  Maybe it will and maybe it won't, but here is a story about a crow who died recently just behind the houses at the bottom end of Rockland Drive in Little Rocky Run.

I found a dying crow one Friday night in mid-August around 8:00PM.  It was very sick and listless and was standing in a tiny pool of water, probably to cool its raging fever.  It made no effort to escape when I approached it.  But I could see panic in its eyes.  I left it alone, and an hour or so later called the Fairfax County Health Department.  No one was there.  I also faxed them information describing the crow's location and its condition.  Since they wanted birds to test that had been dead a maximum of 24 hours, I figured a dying one would be even better.  I got no response on Friday night. On Saturday morning I went back to the crow's location and found it dead, the poor creature pictured above. As I approached the carcass, I was met by a sudden roar of cawing from dozens of crows overhead in the trees.  They were keeping a vigil over their dead comrade and didn't want me there.  I realized immediately I was barging in on a funeral.  It was a very somber moment and I respectfully left.  I got a lump in my throat, amazed at what we don’t really know about the birds and animals all around us. I never did hear from the Health Department.  I found out later they had so many dead birds that had tested positive for West Nile Virus, there was no point in confirming yet again what everyone already knew.  West Nile Virus is in our watershed.                                                                             Return to Index                                                                                                                                           NF, October 2002