Today I had an early breakfast on the pleasant rooftop garden of my hotel. It is called Samaya, which means “Time” or “Serenity”. It has a wonderful view over the city of Kathmandu, reaching to the very edges of the bowl-like valley that defines the metropolis. The sun was shining, and the edges of the valley were misted by low clouds, but still the view was stunning. The twin white-painted towers of the Swayambhunath Temple, or “Monkey Temple”, were clearly visible in the early morning sunlight, directly facing me.
I ate my breakfast leisurely, enjoying the peace and solitude.
As I ended my breakfast, a sleek black crow landed on the railings near to my table. He was obviously eyeing the food left over on my plate. He was nervous about approaching me, (perhaps he sensed that I was not a lover of crows, normally), and he hopped away along the balcony railing, bobbing his head and cocking it to one side, his black eyes blinking occasionally.
I did not make any sudden movements, in the hope he would come closer. To that end, I carefully threw a piece of toast on the ground near him. He looked down on it for a few moments, then decided it was safe to hop down a few paces away and approach it in exaggerated hopping fashion. He grabbed the toast in his enormous beak, and instead of flying back to the railing, he hopped along the garden behind the raised pond to a safe place out of sight of the kitchen. There he gobbled the toast up.
As I finished my breakfast and got up to leave my table, I noticed he was back on the railing. I turned my back and walked a few meters back to the reception area. As I looked back, in the few seconds that had elapsed, no less than 3 crows had suddenly arrived on the table and were gobbling the remnants of my breakfast off the plate. This was obviously a trick they had learned over time, from previous customers and their habits of leaving food on the table. They were not cautious now, they were bold and direct now that I had departed. They had to act quickly before the waiter came and frightened them away. I thought this demonstrated the crows’ extreme intelligence when it comes to scavenging food. And that there must have been some hidden communication between the original crow and his 2 companions, to seize the brief opportunity to feed before the waiter came along.
C. Tim Taylor. 5th July 2018.