Lunch With the Crow

I've always had trouble photographing crows. They see me coming and despite my attempts to approach casually, they always pick up and leave before I get within snapping distance. So I was ignoring a crow one blue morning a few weeks ago as I walked to the edge of Pier 6 in Brooklyn Bridge Park. I passed the lovely wildflower meadow on Pier 6 pictured here. The crow was calling from a high perch as I reached my favorite bench. Click to enlarge.

I was not even going to try to take that crow's picture. I unwrapped the lox cream cheese bagel I'd brought for lunch.

Then I settled in to watch the boat traffic on the East River; here's a nice red tug heading north past lower Manhattan.

The next thing I knew, that crow had landed really close and was looking at me. After a minute it came closer. I thought briefly of Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds before realizing it was looking at the bagel on the bench beside me.

It turns out crows really like lox cream cheese bagels.

And they like to keep clean. Between bites, it flew to a fence railing and wiped the cream cheese off its beak.

Last seen flying toward Governor's Island. Something tells me he's going to become a regular lunch companion at Pier 6.