"A Celebration of Crows"

Every year the Friends of Tryon Creek host a family event on Earth Day following an award ceremony for the winners of our Tall Tale Writing Contest. This year, the event theme is "A Celebration of Crows".

Why crows? They make frequent and familiar appearances in the English language in phrases such as crow's nest, as the crow flies, eat crow, and to crow about something. Crows are common in our global mythology and symbolize creation, death, the sacred, bad omens, lightness, darkness, cunning, trickery... the list is long and varied. Crows are fascinating and have captured our collective imagination for millenia.

Members of the corvid family, crows are prolific and found on every continent except New Zealand, Antarctica and South America. They produce a wide variety of sounds and are known to mimic noises made by other animals, including birds. They are predators and scavengers and prefer to eat on the ground. They are not picky - they will eat almost anything - but their typical diet includes worms and insects, seeds and fruit, garbage and carrion, and small animals and chicks they rob from nests. They are also family-oriented and live in mated pairs that form large families of up to fifteen individuals. Offspring typically remain with the family to help raise new nestlings.

Inspired by the crow's mystique, as well as its inquisitive and clever nature, the Friends of Tryon Creek have lined up a series of engaging and challenging family activities that will test your cleverness IQ to find out if you are as resourceful and sharp as our resident corvid. Join us at "A Celebration of Crows", a free, fun, family event, on April 22nd, at Tryon Creek State Natural Area, from 2 - 4 p.m. Pre-registration is appreciated: http://www.tryonfriends.org/programs/calendar-listings/icalrepeat.detail/2012/04/22/843/-/a-celebration-of-crows.html