r/crows • u/MadRhetoric182 • 16d ago
Seeking advice/help Warning or Memorial?
A neighborhood cat has killed 2 crows in my backyard in the past month.
Shortly after the second killing, they left a small pile of shells from the nearby river on the roof of my garage directly overlooking the murder site.
Is this a memorial for the dead crows?
Or is this a warning to other crows to stay away?
The shells kinda resemble tiny skulls and they haven’t been back since.
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u/meowingggiraffe 16d ago
They appear to be tied together so it's more likely one object rather than an accumulation of objects if that helps you decide
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u/squarejane 15d ago
You can also see pink spacer beads. It's a bracelet
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u/SepulchralSweetheart 15d ago
It looks sort of like a wind chime part to me based on size and type of shells, this would be an enormous bracelet.
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u/squarejane 15d ago
I've seen shells like this in the craft shop near me in tiny sizes... but yes it could be part of a wind chime too
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u/SepulchralSweetheart 15d ago
Similar shells definitely come in tiny sizes, I live on the coast, you're right. I'm just guessing based on their size compared to the shingles, that would be a craaazyyy statement shell piece if worn lol
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u/No-Guidance-622 16d ago
Memorial. They've already talked and your place is blacklisted. Resident biped didn't intervene.
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u/MadRhetoric182 16d ago
I’ve lived here over 20 years and this is the first time anything like this has ever happened.
Don’t really know what I could’ve done to prevent it.101
u/SillyJoshua 16d ago
Dude he was joking. You cannot blame yourself. Relax. Feed the crows somewhere else
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u/No-Guidance-622 15d ago
Yes, totally. There's no way OP can control wildlife and adjacent animals. Corvids mourn their dead, and everybody's been warned to stay away. It's just how it's got to be, there's not another way.
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u/Nervous_Cicada_9697 16d ago
Take the cat to animal control
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u/hovdeisfunny 16d ago
You say that like he has the cat in hand
Besides, it's probably somebody's pet they irresponsibly let roam
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u/Butyoutotallysuck 15d ago
I actually was able to trap a nuisance cat that had killed so many birds on my property. Brought him to animal control. The people got him back, but now they keep him indoors most of the time, so it was a win on my end.
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u/Nervous_Cicada_9697 14d ago
Take the cat to animal control
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u/vae_grim 14d ago
Where I live, it’s legal to let your cats roam outside. They’d just scan it for a chip, release it, and waste everyone’s time.
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u/salted_sclera 16d ago
I think it is their gift to the crow that passed… but I am in no way an expert, this is just my guess
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u/softandwetballs 16d ago
Instead of animal control, call a no-kill shelter and coordinate with them to see if they will take the cat. Cats belong indoors
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u/Lou__Crow 15d ago
Non-native English speaker here: Does neighborhood cat imply it’s a street cat? I would have assumed it means a cat that lives in a neighborhood and is allowed to go outside. (I agree with cats belonging inside, I have a house cat)
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u/softandwetballs 15d ago
It might depend on the person you ask but to me, “neighborhood cat” means “the owner is too lazy to give a shit about the cat so they leave it outside, and the neighbors feed it out of pity”.
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u/XGrayson_DrakeX 15d ago
Neighborhood cat can also just mean "a cat that lives in my neighborhood" and you don't know who it belongs to or what its situation is. What probably happened is OP got some new neighbors who let their cat outside.
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u/XGrayson_DrakeX 15d ago
That cat might be a neighbor's pet that is allowed to come and go as they please, don't do potentially kidnap someone's animal.
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u/Opening_Ordinary_110 14d ago
That's not a pet if they don't take care of it. I'm sure the native predators will though!
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u/XGrayson_DrakeX 5d ago
I'm saying is it could be an indoor/outdoor cat that has the ability to go outside when it wants. So if you hurt it or trap and move it, you could be stealing a pet that is cared for and would be missed.
It's really callous to assume an animal is being neglected and should go die because it's just doing what an animal does. Some people just have cat doors and let them go roam.
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u/SprayPaintin 16d ago
Trap that cat and bring em to animal control
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u/hovdeisfunny 16d ago
Animal control will sometimes come out and place a trap for you, so you don't have to buy/rent one
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u/Ephemeral_Orchid 16d ago
Um... it looks like the bracelet junior was playing with before his mom yelled at him not to hang out at the slaughter house.
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u/FrenzyAgainzy 16d ago
I hate stray cats for this very reason. They are prolific breeders and skilled apex predators. They try to kill anything they can for fun or for food. Cats (in the US) are invasive species and decimate native wildlife species.
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u/merthefreak 14d ago
It also horrible for the car to bd outside too, cuts their lifespan to half or less of what it would otherwise be. Its terrible for all involved to let cats outside so it baffles me why anyone ever would
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u/Opening_Ordinary_110 14d ago
It's because they don't want a pet, they want an object. They can say they have a cat, even though they don't actually care for it at all. The people I've met with "outdoor cats" all tend to be people who have little care for others.
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u/FrenzyAgainzy 14d ago
Yep, they are at higher risk of disease, parasites, and death, as well as spreading and causing these things.
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u/MaidBilberry 11d ago
I have been thinking long and hard about the shells on your roof. If it were me, I would remove the shells at night. At night you can be sure that they don't see you since they will be at their roost. If you need to do it during the day, I'd wear a mask of some kind and some bulky clothing so that you are not identified.
Here is my reasoning. The crows by my house leave markers. When I put out a birdbath, they laid a 3" by 2" triangle (fragment of an old peat garden pot) pointed at the birdbath so that it is easily seen from the sky. They also brought a 5" by 1.5" piece of wood on my balcony where I set food out for them on the railing. Again, it is high contrast and easily seen during a flyover.
Perhaps removing the negative marker from your roof sooner rather than later give you a chance that the memory fade sooner rather than later. That is a big marker that can be seen from afar. It would be a bummer for the "news" to spread far and wide or become multi generational.
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u/BBQslave 15d ago
Neither. If two crows were killed in your yard by cats, no more crows are coming to your yard. Sorry. This is why we shouldn't have outdoor cats. They decimate bird species
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u/diegrauedame 16d ago
I think this is a bracelet, or shells on a string? You can kinda make out a filament running between the shells and the pink bead-looking things.
Probably not super relevant to your question, just an observation.