There's a Crow on my Head

I don't think I look like a tree. Yet during my walk last week a crow landed on my head over a dozen times. I need to add that I walk around our local lake path and feed crows 'not for human consumption' peanuts, which I buy at Wild Birds Unlimited.  I suspect those peanuts are intended for squirrels. Originally my husband fed peanuts to squirrels. However, when I noticed that crows also tried to get 'squirrel' peanuts, we started to feed crows, too.  We soon learned (and I have read) how intelligent crows really are. No matter what hat, coat or other clothes I wear, crows recognize me and start following me, landing in front of me, and looking up at me, as if to ask "where are the peanuts?"

So I suspect I'm known as the 'peanut lady' among our local crows. A few crows even beg for peanuts by landing on the power line connected to our house and 'cawing' until we lay peanuts on our porch bannister. They seem to hear us open the front door and come for peanuts. But I digress ...

I regularly notice crows following me while I walk and I toss peanuts to them.  Occasionally a crow seems to drag his claws through my hair (or sometimes a knit cap). My husband says that they are trying to get my attention.  However, I believed that they were just trying to land in front of me and misjudged my walking speed and their landing angle so that they collided with my head on the way to the ground.  Sometimes I'll experience several (4-6) collisions within a short distance.  I've considered trying to catch a crow when I feel it on my head, but they usually leave as quickly as they land.  Nevertheless, I once sensed that one crow stayed for more than a few seconds.  So I wondered whether that bird was just catching a free ride during the peanut chase. 

During last week's crow feeding expedition I experienced multiple head landings. I believed that several crows were 'misjudging' their landing angle. However I began to notice the crow(s?) began to land on different parts of my head (back, sides, rather than just crown). So I decided I would talk loudly to the next crow to land on my head. If multiple crows were landing on my head, I may need to shout at several crows before the head landing ceased. 

Within a minute or so I felt another crow land on my head. So I shouted, "Hey! Stop that! I'm not a tree."  That immediately ended the head landings for the day, which made me conclude that only one crow was landing on my head that whole time.  I wonder what he was thinking ... (The other crows continue to follow me to beg for peanuts.)

Later that night I asked my husband to look at the top of my head to check whether I had a little sign saying "For more peanuts, land here."  I may never know why that crow landed on my head so many times ...