“So gather around sparrows I need your full attention, and stop drinking that water. We have more important things to do.”
“But Mr. Crow we all like a good drop of water at a meeting. We get so thirsty chirping all the time.”
“In that case I would ask the sparrows to refrain from over chirping and listen to what I have to say, as the appointed chief crow.
Last year it was noticed that as soon as the human cast out the daily crumbs the sparrows were stuffing themselves, before we crows had a chance to collect a beak full.”
“Of couse, you crows have bigger beaks that we do, and we have to be the first to make sure we do not starve.”
“If I remember rightly, you are the sparrow that fell off his perce on the branch of a tree because you were overweight, after eating so many bread crumbs.”
“That is exactly what we sparrows mean. If the crows arrive first, we sparrows have no chance. They stuff their beaks full with so much bread that we sparrows only get the crummy rests.”
“Listen you cheeky sparrow. We crows were here before you even thought of coating yourself with an eggshell. Our dynasty has been living here for many years in our colony, and we have a right to first pickings when the human distributes the bread pieces in the morning. This Winter we crows expect more respect from the junior members of the bird life here.
There will be snow and ice and we all want to survive. The sparrows will wait, perched on a branch whilst we crows will have the first choice.”
“But that’s not fair, the crows take at least 3-4 pieces of bread at once and we are only left with the crumbs.”
“That is the way the bread crumbles sparrow. We have to maintain our species here, we have a reputation to keep. We crows are built for bigger things and we cannot have the sparrows falling out of their nests due to overweight.”
And so the crows and sparrows left the meeting in a flurry of feathers and pecks. In the meanwhile the human was preparing her strategy for the next Winter. She felt so sorry for those poor little sparrows when the crows were helping themselves to the largest pieces of bread. She decided the next Winter she would made two piles for the birds. One would be the bread cubes and the other the crumbs. That way all the birds would be satisfied. And then the starlings arrived, but that is another problem to be solved.
Chronicles of an Anglo Swiss 
Great story! “We are all equal but some are more equal” – George Orwell’s Animal Farm 🙂
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Exactly, and the crows are in charge, they make the most noise.
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Such lovely writing!!
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Thankyou – it is all a part of the bird life in our village.
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Pat, you’re such a wonderful story teller; I hope you’ll find time and opportunities to tell your grandchildren stories. Here where I live, it’s the huge pies (3 couples I think) who reign and scream, closely followed by the fat pigeons and only then the smaller birds get a chance. The pigeons even hop INTO the bird feeders in the garden and stuff themselves silly – they are ENORMEOUS fat vermin.
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We live between a colony of crows and a colony of magpies, with the sparrows everywhere and a few blackbirds. In Winter I feed them all and see who the bosses are. The crows come first and take the best, whilst the magpies are watching and dare to go between. Eventually it is the sparrows and the tits that arrive to eat the seeds and the crumbs. We have not piegeons here, they live down the main road in Solothurn.
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At first I thought this was a photo of Tabby’s fantasy smorgasbord! 🙂 My hedges are home to sparrows and they sing all year, even when it’s very cold. I used to think sparrows were kind of “meh” birds, but now I think we’re kind of friends. I love the story.
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We see a few sparrows in Summer, but they appear in Winter as soon as the table is laid. I wonder where they go in Summer. They are very cheeky birds and are always the first for anything, although small in comparison to the others. Tabby only has a lick and a nibble at bread if it looks interesting, otherwise her tastes are more in the gourmet direction.
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Dusty suggested that the sparrows were Tabby’s smorgasbord. I said he didn’t understand Tabby’s refined pallet. 🙂
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‘Listen you cheeky sparrow’–wow, those crows mean business!
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Crows are the boss around here.
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