A Crow Flies into a Mystery

Crow in Flight by L. C. Mcgee
It was on an early morning beach walk when my wife and I were first startled by the appearance of a saucy and glossy, brown-colored crow. With the exceptions of an Apollo legend, we thought all crows were black. After a few exclamations as to its beauty, we dubbed the unusual bird the amber crow.

In my childhood I raised two black crows. They enchanted me with their intelligence and personalities. They taught me how they lived, their likes, dislikes and some of the ways they thought. Did this different crow symbolize our environment and its continual evolution and change?

Later, near the same area, again we saw the amber crow strutting among other crows. Must be a family we whispered, most were black but a few sported amber feathers in their wings; others were feathered in various combinations of black, white and amber.

Months later, working in my garden, a pure white crow fluttered onto a phone line. It was quite thin and weak. Two black crows flew up to support it, each on a side. Was it a relation, the matriarch perhaps? I’ll never know. I’ve noticed much compassion in crows, i.e. the helping of the sick and wounded, so I was not surprised at the support and caring I saw.

Once, driving by a lone graveyard, I spotted a large gathering of crows settling in trees near the road. All were oddly hushed and looking down. I pulled over. Below the trees, a few mourners stood in a respectful oval around the dead body of a large crow. I was fortunate; I was witnessing a “crow funeral”. With the exception of the occasional caw, it was eerie and silent. What irony, the crow lying on the green sward of a peoples’ graveyard and being shown crow-respect. Corvids are rarely shown human-respect for they are regarded as harbingers’ of death, since they do peck and eat, among other carrion, the dead body of an unfortunately exposed human; a blasphemy of the highest order, whatever that might be. 

Later I was mulling over our sighting of the amber crow and told my wife that a mystery of the natural world was calling me. “Ah, one of our favorite genres,” she replied, “mysteries!”  So the germ of an egg had been laid.

The Amber Crow series is pure fun mystery-fiction, scribbled to entertain. I delight in making up stories. I hope you enjoy the tales as much as I enjoy writing them.
L. C. Mcgee

Crow in Flight: By Iain Wanless (Flickr: Crow in flight) [CC-BY-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/b...)], via Wikimedia Commons

L.C. Mcgee, his wife and two fine cats live on the coast of Puget Sound. He enjoys reading, writing, writhing in coils (yoga), gardening and the occasional summer sail. Researching coastal Indian lore is a hobby and is further enhanced by his son’s Tlingit ancestry. He has finished writing his first mystery novel, The Amber Crow (available May 2013), is updating the sequel, The Amber crow and the Black Mariah, and has begun, The Amber Crow and the Hooting Woman. He is a contributing author to New Halem Tales Secrets, available at the Amazon Kindle Store.
More about L. C. at 5 NW Authors