Awake!

Today I awoke to the sound of crows around 6:40 this morning.  There was a great deal of noise outside.  However, the vocals seemed to be different than the calling back and forth (complex) conversations.  This type of interaction I did hear at least once before, weeks back: one crow starts cawing and the others join in.  I think the first bird only gets out only one caw before the others join in- in near...near unison..at least today it was not unison, but near unison.   I don't know how many times a series of unison calls were expressed but I think it may have been several or near several times.  There were breaks between the series of unison calls, but I did not get a feeling that the series of vocals were calling and answering sessions.

I wrote about this type of interaction in "The Chat," an entry from July 17, 2014.  I went back to that entry, and interestingly enough, I interpreted the different series of unison calls as calling and answering sessions- a conversation.  I did not interpret the series of calls as a complex conversation (where different birds participate singularly for an extended period of time), but I did interpret it as a conversation.  Why did I interpret the series of unison vocals as calling and answering sessions that day, but not interpret the series of unison vocals as calling and answering sessions today?

Perhaps it's because on July 17th I was outside with the birds.  Today, I was not.  I suppose what happened is that on July 17th I saw or sensed one bird in a particular tree start the cawing and the others joined in, and then another bird I saw or sensed in another tree some feet away start the cawing and the others joined in- and I interpreted the second series of calls as an answer to the first series of calls.  I think that might...might have happened.

At home I can also get a sense of call and answer sessions without looking outside based on where the calls are coming from.  But today, the calls just seemed close. I have no other information, but I do think the calls were further away that I thought.  In regard to the room I was in today, the window was way above my head and I got no sense of what direction those calls were coming from.  I believe at the time I may have even assumed that it was the same bird starting the unison calls because I had no sense of distance between the series of unison calls.

At least once, one series of unison vocals was followed by caws from a few crows.  There seemed to be at least one single caw and before that maybe...maybe two birds cawing at the same time.  However, it wasn't organized like the unison calls, and there were only very few birds cawing at that time.  I believe this very short session was between two of the unison series.  

My impression was that those few birds were not answering the preceding unison call.  But I don't know. I don't even know if the first bird that starts the unison calls stops when the others join in.  I suppose within a particular series of unison calls, the birds joining in could actually be answering the first bird who caws alone.  But I don't get that impression.  Maybe it's because when the other birds join in, it seems to follow so closely in time behind the first call.  I get the impression the birds join in before the first bird stops talking...hmm, I just don't know.  There's so little I know.  All I can do is keep writing and questioning.