It has long been known that the common crow is no dummy. As early as 500 BCE in Ancient Greece, Aesop, a slave and storyteller, wrote The Crow and the Pitcher, a fable based on the bird’s intelligence. It tells of a thirsty crow that finds a vessel with a small amount of water at the bottom that is beyond the reach of its beak. Unable to tip it over, the bird resorts to dropping pebbles into the pitcher until the water rises high enough to slake the crow’s thirst. Impossible for a bird with a brain the size of a human thumb? Not so, say modern researchers. They point out that, relative to body size, the size of a crow’s brain and ours are comparable.
Research has shown that crows are the only non-primates known to fashion tools and grasp concepts like volume displacement. In a modern version of Aesop’s Fable, scientists placed a floating treat in a deep tube of water. They then provided their black-feathered volunteers with a host of objects of all sizes and buoyancy levels. As Aesop predicted, the avian test subjects didn’t choose items that would float or ones that wouldn’t fit in the tube. They methodically dropped in heavier-than-water objects that raised the treat to a level they could reach.
Crows even have individual and collective memories, as an article from ThoughtCo entitled 9 Ways Crows Are Smarter Than You Think demonstrates. “Around half a million crows would stop in Chatham (Ontario) on their migration route, posing a threat to the farming community’s crops. The mayor of the town declared war on crows and the hunt began. Since then, the crows have bypassed Chatham, flying high enough to avoid being shot.”
Given all this evidence of intelligence, I should not have been surprised at what I witnessed a few weekends ago. On my way to Alexandria, I noticed a dead skunk in the eastbound lane of Dunvegan Road, just a few inches south of the centre line road markings. Upon my return, I spotted the dead skunk in the distance, this time with a hungry crow feasting on its carcass. As I approached (at the legal speed limit, I might add), I fully expected the crow to take wing. I was mistaken. Instead of flying off, it calmly continued dining. Obviously, it understood the only traffic that was a threat were vehicles in the east-bound lane where it was dining. The crow fully expected me to stick to my lane, which I did. I was impressed. If only some of our elected officials exhibited this much common sense.
An 83 year-old tradition
“World Communion Sunday” has been taking place on the first Sunday of every October ever since Dr. Hugh Thomson Kerr introduced it in 1933 in Pittsburgh’s Shadyside Presbyterian Church. His goal was to bring churches together in a service of Christian unity and underscore how each congregation is interconnected one with another. The practice was adopted throughout the US Presbyterian Church in 1936. And, in 1940, the Federal Council of Churches (now the National Council of Churches) endorsed World Communion Sunday and promoted it to Christian churches worldwide.
The Global Ministries web site has a lovely passage that puts the almost 90 year-old tradition in perspective. “The first Sunday of October has become a time when Christians in every culture break bread and pour the cup to remember and affirm Christ as the Head of the Church. On that day, they remember that they are part of the whole body of believers. Whether shared in a grand cathedral, a mud hut, outside on a hilltop, in a meetinghouse, or in a storefront, Christians celebrate the communion liturgy in as many ways as there are congregations.”
This coming Sunday, October 3rd, World Communion Sunday will also be celebrated in Dunvegan’s Kenyon Presbyterian Church. Rev. Jim Ferrier has asked me to extend a heartfelt invitation to join him and the rest of the congregation for worship and Holy Communion at 11 am. They hope to see you there.
Please don’t shoot the drone
Weather permitting; another film crew will be coming to Dunvegan on Friday. Don’t break out your director chairs. It will not be a repeat of this past summer’s Hollywood North performance complete with oodles of gofers and a bevy of starlets and muscle-bound hunks. A much more modest documentary film crew is coming to town with the hope of capturing some aerial views of Dunvegan. So if you spot a drone over the hamlet, please don’t shoot it down. It’s not trying to spot neighbourhood grow ops. The producers just want to cash in on this year’s spectacular fall foliage by taking drone video footage (or is that meterage?) of the Glengarry Pioneer Museum and the grounds of the Kenyon Presbyterian Church.
The forty-minute video documentary is intended to recognize Glengarrians who gave their lives in the Boer War, two World Wars, Korea and Afghanistan. Their stories will be told through song, verse and anecdotes underscored by popular music from the times. The video will also explore the history of the memorials upon which their names are engraved, including the Glengarry Cenotaph in Alexandria and the memorials in Maxville, Apple Hill, Lancaster, Williamstown, Lancaster, Dalkeith and Martintown. The drone photography planned for around Dunvegan’s graveyard will provide context for the story of Seaman Donald Cameron Young, RCNVR who died on March 1st, 1946 and whose final resting place is marked by a stone erected by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission. Similarly, aerial shots of the Dunvegan museum will be background for other Dunvegan residents who made the ultimate sacrifice.
Spearheaded by Gabrielle Campbell, Scott Campbell and Robin Flockton, the aim of the production is to document Glengarry County’s remarkable contribution to Canada’s heritage and raise awareness of the Glengarry Historical Society. The hope is to have the production ready for distribution on YouTube and social media sometime in April 2021. To kick off the project, the Glengarry Historical Society has contributed $2,000 in seed money. This will allow the group to complete as much video and still photography as possible during the fall of 2020, including the documentation of this year’s pandemic-curtailed Remembrance Day ceremonies. It is hoped that the remainder of the $12,500 production and promotion budget can be raised through crowdsourcing and other means.
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