Crows Bathing

As I was walking I was listening for birds and saw a lot of sparrows bathing in the dirt (I don't know why they do that). Then I decided to go to the park. It used to be called Jackson Pond. There are benches and a fountain that shoots water high up into the ground only to fall back down into a pool. I often see birds bathing there. I found a stone on the ground and placed it in the pool. Then I sat upon a bench below a trees full of turning red leaves and looked at the fountain and the pool.

In the distance I saw birds flying into the trees. Not the rock doves which are always flying around in packs or resting on the apartment buildings. These were black. Were they starlings? Or were they crows? Then suddenly all of them came flying towards me and towards the pool. Hundreds of them. Crows more crows than I have ever seen before and they were all coming towards me. Almost more birds than I have ever seen birds before. They swooped down in to the pool and started bathing. There were a sparrow or two among them as if inviting them into their pool. The sparrows are always there. The crows took turns in groups bathing in the pool and drinking. Some of the crows had little balls in their beaks that looked like eyeballs. They were not purely black but their feathers were colored with blues and pinks and purples and reds as if they were covered with oil and shining in the sun. When some of the crows were done bathing they flew into the tree above me and others came to drink and to bathe. After a while, several waves the crows started flying away.

I kneeled down to pray the Angelus and as I was on my knees the last of the crows flew away. Then I walked home. I sung the magpie song. It was a very spiritual song. I never knew there were so many crows around. Crows are  birds of ill omen. But I did not feel any fear. They were just birds who live in the city, which I did not know there were so many. Now I have seen them bathe and drink at the fountain.