The story, 'The Girl Who Gets Gifts From Birds' originally appeared in the BBC news in February 2015, written by journalist Katy Sewall, featuring a girl in Seattle who befriended the local crows so much that they began to bring her gifts of various found objects. A huge collection began to amass, and this led me to a second story, 'Birds that bring gifts and do the gardening'. Here several other examples of crows returning favours of care and food by bringing items of jewellery, glass, plastics, indeed anything they found.
There are several elements of interest to me here. I love the random, unpredictable nature of the expanding collections, the secret unknowable motivations and conditions for object choice, the sheer beauty of it all. When scanning areas for objects there is always an excitement and energy involved because everything is a surprise, an unpredictable coincidence of conditions, of what you are looking at, of what the mind is subconsciously looking for, of what has been put in front of you and of what you miss etc. And finally, what more magical and superstitious protagonist than a crow.