Good morning, Netizens...

 

Spokesman-Review columnist Doug Clark's story (http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2011/jul/19/doug-clark-bird-calling-device-is-something-to/) about a crow-calling device this morning did not quite live up to Hillyard standards because we have the genuine article right down the street. Pinky, a delightful old bat who lives down the street from the Virtual Ballroom has been calling a pair of crows by name for several months and feeding them bread crumbs on her front lawn each day.

 

Who needs a crow-calling wooden whistle when you have Heckle and Jeckle, two Hillyard crows, who seem to favor our neighborhood, perhaps because of this retired 90 year-old woman adorned in pink-colored hair who comes out daily armed with a bowl of shredded bread crumbs and calls them by name?

 

Nobody is certain how or when our neighbor first began calling the two crows Heckle and Jeckle, although several resident cartoon historians have been quick to point out the original Terrytoons Heckle and Jeckle cartoon characters were actually magpies, not crows, but that seems irrelevant when you consider the end result. The pair of crows, and oftentimes their friends and relatives show up calling for their breakfast until Pinky comes out and delivers their ration of bread crumbs.

 

On those rare occasions when our resident crow-caller shows up earlier than expected, all she has to do is call them by name, and they swoop out of the trees and march in imperious splendor across the grass to where their meals await them.

 

Although nobody has ever checked the crows to see they are indeed Heckle and Jeckle rather than crow-imposters, having witnessed this daily call to bread crumbs, where Pinky calls them by name, there is little doubt in anyone's mind that at least two of the crows are the genuine items. Of course, throughout the rest of the day, itinerant crows drop raucously by to check for any remaining crumbs so life is never dull in Hillyard.

 

Dave

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