crow portraits

The Crow Helpline

/ The Urban Nature Enthusiast / 9 Comments

Sometimes I wonder if we’d be better off with crows in charge.

While photographing my local corvids, I often make small talk.

I ask them how they’re doing, if they’ve picked a nesting site yet, how the night at the roost went — general neighbourly chit chat.

Sometimes, I tell them what’s going on in the human world.

Partly for my own sanity, I’ve been working on a new series of crow portraits which, at least in my own imagination, offer snippets of practical advice for living through these “interesting” times.

The series is called THE CROW HELPLINE …

CROW COMMENTARY

This is Dolores, mate to Dennis and mother of Tufty, the 2024 fledgling suffering from avian pox, Dennis and Dolores have kept Tufty going through several cold and snowy weeks this winter. Dennis acquires food for Tufty and guards him or her, while Dolores acts as lookout, cawing out loud warnings of any impending danger.
To the casual observer, she may seem to be just a loud crow — but, as with all crow commentary, there is always a deeper meaning behind it.

RISKY BUSINESS

This is Norman, taking the tricky route along the picket fence.  Sometimes everything seems fraught with danger, but you just have to take one tricky step after another and conquer the challenge.

CROW OF DISCERNMENT

Dennis could be described as a skeptic. He likes to double check his facts in this complicated world, making him a role model of good judgement and sense.

WADE IN

Sometimes the situation seems overwhelming — so you just need to take a deep breath and wade right in to get to the other side. This is Earl, a particularly inspiring crow.

TENACIOUS

Earl is an elderly and very photogenic crow of my acquaintance. He and his beautiful mate, Echo, have produced several generations of local crow characters. Once Earl makes his mind up, he’s an immovable crow — the epitome of tenacity!

MINDFUL CROW

“Be mindful” is such good advice — so why do I find it so hard to follow?

Watching mindfulness practiced by my local crows may be my best route to inner peace!

WISTFUL

Sometimes it’s OK just to feel sad and a bit confused.

HANG IN THERE

Crows are experts at adapting to challenging circumstances with aplomb. We can only aim for a small fraction of their graceful flexibility in our own lives.

BE ALERT

It is always wise to be on the alert, as Earl knows all too well.

SPEAK OUT

When things are wrong, don’t be afraid to speak out. Bongo is never a bird to keep his opinions to himself.

PERSPICACIOUS CROW

Norman the crow likes to get a view of things from all angles before reaching important decisions.

OUT ON A LIMB

Sometimes, you may feel as if you’re out on a limb.

As precarious as things may feel, Norman recommends adapting to the situation with as much nonchalance as you can muster. Fake it till you make it!

STRONGER TOGETHER

Earl has one crooked leg and Echo is blind in one eye but, together, they are  local crow power couple; parents, grandparents and great grandparents to many other crow characters. They have each other’s backs at all times.

PHILOSOPHER CROW

I include Philosopher Crow with the theme of this series although it’s an older portrait. Mavis, with just that slightest tilt of the head, seems to suggest a world of crow philosophy. Mavis remains, after many years, my best-selling print.

You can find all of these new prints in my CROW CHARACTERS gallery.

Oh, and one last comment from Bongo.

 

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© junehunterimages, 2025. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to junehunterimages with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

 

Crows in the Boardroom

/ The Urban Nature Enthusiast / 7 Comments

On Monday I jokingly posted the suggestion that crows would make excellently determined school zone speed limit enforcers.

I’ve often thought that an intense corvid stare might help bring home all kinds of messages.

Room for 28 crows more up here

The Wings enforcing their local stop sign

Today’s crow thought: why stop at traffic signs?

Put crows where the big decisions are made!

Instead of stuffy CEO portraits or generic landscapes, let’s see crows adorning the walls of the centres of power. We need giant judgemental crows gazing down at the humans sitting down to set policy in government and corporate settings.

A thoughtful corvid presiding over a meeting might help decision makers remember that any new plan should meet the objectives of that most important of all stakeholders — Nature.

At the very least, it would remind meeting attendees to not take themselves too seriously.

Crows — the ultimate influencers!

 

 

 

 

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© junehunterimages, 2022. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to junehunterimages with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

Dear Readers …

/ The Urban Nature Enthusiast / Leave a comment

Here is something of what I wanted to write last week, which ended up being a whirlwind of packaging and shipping pre-ordered City Crow Stories books in the middle of having the floors in the main part of our house re-finished.

“Before” floors with baffled pets

I’d hoped that the launching of the book and the floor project would fall at different times but they seemed pulled inexorably together like catastrophically aligned meteors. Luckily the convergence was more along the lines of domestic chaos than planetary cataclysm.

Outdoor kitchen set up — almost like a camping holiday!

Because the pre-orders came in as we were madly trying to get the house emptied, and I was still waiting for the books to be printed and bound, it was only when I was actually physically picking up each printed order and placing it with the book to put in an envelope that I saw all the names of people who had purchased one.

The “camping at home” might have been a little nicer if it wasn’t the coldest May in recorded history!

As I  packed each book I smiled at all the names I recognized, ranging from old friends to people I’ve come to know online.

I wished I could write a little note with every order, but things were so overwhelming at that point I felt I just had to keep going and get the hundreds (yes, hundreds!) of books on their way. 

So here is, with apologies for the generalization, the note I wished I’d been able to include:

Thank-you so much for ordering the book.
Thank-you so much for your support over the years (some of you since the first studio sale in the small garden shed I shared with squirrels!)
Thank-you all the encouraging, funny, touching, fascinating emails you’ve sent about your own experiences with crows and ravens and about what my work has meant to you. 

Amid the general madness, I’ve felt very grateful to know so many lovely people.

And a PS — many thanks to those of you who’ve received your City Crow Stories, read it and written back with such kind comments.

Lily was miraculously available to help with some of the packaging. Couldn’t have done it without her!

The Story Behind the City Crow Stories

I first started thinking of creating a book some time in 2020, but the thought just rattled around in my mind,  month after month.

The downside of self-publishing is that you don’t have an editor telling you what to do — the book can be anything you want it to be, which is actually rather terrifying.

By the start of  2022 I was determined to get started, but January and February consisted  of more mental flailing, as I became convinced that I had to write a book to Save The World via crows.

Relief came when I realized that I just needed to write a few stories about some crows I know — and let the crows do the saving on their own!

Some of  my goals in creating City Crow Stories were to:

  • make a book that is full of beauty and humour
  • create a lot of visual space to let the crows’ beauty and character speak for themselves
  • tell the story of how I came to love crows
  • help people realize that “my” crows are not the only special ones
  • offer some tips on how to recognize and make friends with crows
  • encourage people to take a break from the meta-verse
  • inspire curiosity in other lives
  • as stated earlier, save the world, via crows (a girl can dream …)

Meanwhile, on the home front, the floors look lovely. They’re still full of character, but with a lot fewer splinters. In fact, they look SO good we’ve now got to re-paint the walls to match their splendour, meaning we’re still semi-camping out.

The pets remain puzzled …

 

 

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© junehunterimages, 2022. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to junehunterimages with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.