Flowers on a Sunday Morning

Like clockwork, it was another Sunday morning where the crows were gathered in the same general area for an extended conversation.  It's gotten so regular that I've decided to make Sunday morning at 9:30 am crow time, and be prepared with a recorder, some paper, a pen, and camera.  

When I pulled back the blinds I saw two crows strolling down the street.  A third one chose not to go and had its head and back facing me. I could see the wind turning up its feathers.  I got the impression that this crow was not a fan of the mighty winds that were blowing.

Before leaving, it tried to pluck a flower.  There's something about this little tree.  This is the third time I have witnessed a crow trying to pluck a flower from this tree, but they never can do it.

The crows concentrate on the bottom branch on the left side that hangs down very low. The crow stood next to the tree and tried get a flower from the branch that was near to the ground.  Once I saw two crows trying to pluck flowers from that same tree.  One stood on the ground next to it and concentrated on a flower near the ground.  Another one perched on the same branch but higher up and tried to pluck a flower. 

I've never in my life seen a crow try to pluck a flower before I came to this area.  Why do these crows want the flowers from this tree?  Do they actually eat them?  I've never heard of that before.  This warrants an  investigation.

The Chat

The other day I had the most satisfying experience that I've had with the crows since I got here.  They were on the grass all in the same general area.  Then they took to the trees, which might have been because of my presence, but some of them chose trees that were close to me.    In the trees, they were talking back and forth.  The conversations were most interesting.  One bird would start cawing.  Right after that bird got just one caw out, another one would start.  They would caw over each other, but only after each bird got out one single caw.

One bird was in a tree with low branches.  It was quite close to me.  Another one joined it.  The two of them faced each other and began to have a conversation...facing each other and chatting like girlfriends. One talked and the other one answered.  The conversation was very short- just seconds.  Still, seeing that fascinated me.  Then as I left, a crow on a wire above me was cawing.  It's head was turned, facing Southwest which is were the trees were, (although it was looking somewhat downward and not up where the leaves of the trees were).  But  most crows usually just look ahead when they caw.  Not this one...Southwest...did it want to look toward the general directions of the birds when it cawed?  Was this on purpose?