By now you have probably heard some stories about the last Fresh Air Friday that sound pretty far-fetched and outrageous. Unfortunately, they are probably close to the truth. It was the first one we have ever had to come back to the school early and we hung on as long as we could. It started as every other FAF - we donned our vests and travelled to the river. We had no sooner gotten settled for our lesson before our activities when a crow landed right beside us. At first we ignored him but he soon made it impossible to not acknowledge him. Some of you might be familiar with this little fella as I took pictures of him pecking on our window last week and he has been hanging around the intermediate playground as well. He was very curious and hopped closer to the children and pecked on a boot. We attempted to shoo him off and he hopped right back. He was certainly not afraid of us. By this point the anxiety of some of the children was rising. The situation quickly ramped up as the bird continued to hop about and refused to go away despite our best attempts. We tried to keep the scene calm but some children were grabbing at the bird or shooing it away, some were screaming in fear, others were beginning to sob quietly or laugh uproariously. Eyes were as big as hen's eggs. Eventually we decided to remedy the situation by returning to the school as the children were too worked up to listen well and the crow refused to leave. The crow flew off as we began the walk home and we all breathed a sigh of relief. As we settled in the school field to debrief the children and decide on our activities for the remainder of the afternoon, the crow swooped down and returned to his previous behaviour- hopping about and pecking at boots or hands- causing a repeat of the scenario we had thought we left behind. We sent the children to the playground to move away from the bird and he sat on top of the monkey bars and began to swoop low over the children's heads. At that point we decided to move into the school as many of the children were crying and upset. We later heard that he is a rescue bird who was hand raised and has a family in Batchelor Heights and spends his days exploring the area. I have a feeling that we will be seeing him at BEST again.
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Mrs. Bowden &
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