Welcome to this issue of Stumped by Nature, where we notice nature lurking just beyond our screens, curate a list of outside-y events in Austin, and build community with other folks in the thick of the startup ecosystem.
In this week’s issue:
Corvids
Milestone birthday ambitions
Upcoming outdoors events + potential day trips
Let’s dig in!
-Nicole
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NATURE SPOTLIGHT
Birds. That’s the topic.
Specifically, corvids, a family of perching birds, known for the intelligence of a seven-year-old human, a fondness for tools (!), and a complex social web. They’re the honors students of the bird domain, and if they were to dress up for Halloween, they’d go as pirates to accentuate their nest-raiding hobby and raucous vocal hooks.
Notorious, mysterious, and more competent than a kindergartener
The names for their gatherings say a lot about their reputations:
A group of crows is a murder
A group of ravens is an unkindness, conspiracy, or treachery
Clearly named by someone who ended up on a corvid’s shit list, and rightfully so. These birds hold grudges. Documented, 10-year-long, generational grudges. Cross a corvid, and when they recognize your face, they’ll sound the alarm to summon a feathery mob to enforce justice.
That said, corvids also develop human companionship. Given patience and snacks, crows are known to bestow gifts, like shiny trinkets or heartfelt garbage. Sure, the gifts were stolen, but it’s the thought that counts.
Personal goal: by age 40, I’d like a transactional, barter-based relationship with a crow. This is not Audubon-approved, but with a supply of unsalted peanuts, hard-boiled eggs, and some strategic cawing, the odds are not zero. Crows have been known to leave paperclips and rubber bands. I love office supplies. Caw!
Crow!
Crows
Crows are the posterbird of Corvidae. They’re clever, social, and steeped in lore around death. They hold funerals for fallen peers (correlation ≠ causation, but try telling that to a 6-year-old.).
Their résumé/rap sheet/dating profile reads like this:
Can use tools:
Dip cups into water to carry it
Snap splinters from wood to spear hidden prey
Enjoys misdemeanor-type hobbies:
Stealing eggs from nests
Swiping fish from otters
Raiding pet food bowls
Highly resourceful:
Crows sometimes lead hunters to prey, let the humans do the messy work, then swoop in to snack. Opportunists are going to opportune.
Effective as a perch.
They’re also the reason scarecrows exist, but since crows understand object permanence and abstract threats, farmers must move the scarecrow around or risk it becoming a lawn ornament.
Pro tip: skip Googling scarecrows. What morbid arts and crafts are these farmers up to?
Ravens
Now, zoom out to their larger cousin, the raven. Two feet tall, deep-voiced, a flair for the dramatic.
Little fact deluge:
Ravens play catch by dropping sticks for their pals to snatch in midair
Courtship includes males flying upside down for half a mile. Sexy!
Mated for life, raven couples spend downtime allopreening (grooming each other’s feathers) while murmuring sweet nothings
These treacherous birds earned literary immortality through Edgar Allan Poe, whose nevermore inspired the name of the Baltimore Ravens. I can only hope that their locker-room chat is an intimate discussion of which line breaks have moved their souls to tears.
Once you’re through your internet deep dive of gothic poetry, come back to Austin to check out:
Local corvid celebrities:
Pogo the 15-year-old rescue raven holds court with her wild pals at The Austin Nature and Science Center
Barista + Raven buddies near Frost Tower. Devour this downtown friendship on the internet, and let us know how that relationship has progressed
Blue Jays
Our final corvid pit stop: blue jays.
Groups of jays are known as a party, band, or scold. These buddies gang up on red-shouldered hawks, making them my backyard’s unofficial guard birds for my flock of chickens. Hawks will eye my hens. Blue jays will dive-bomb the hawks. My hens continue to peck, oblivious to their mortality.
Bonus Round: Not a Corvid
You may wonder if we’ve been discussing the black, vaguely iridescent bird you see in Austin parking lots, going off like electrified, yellow-eyed bombs. No. Those are grackles. We’ll need to circle back for grackle talk. Stayed tuned.
Not a corvid
HALLOWEEN: Thin Veil Edition
Halloween sits on the seam between worlds. Its ancestor, Samhain, was a Gaelic festival marking the end of harvest and the tilt toward winter. The earliest writings (9th century) describe bonfires, burial mounds, and the belief that the veil between living and dead thinned.
Families welcomed returning ancestors with food and drink, which blurred over time, with offerings meant to appease wandering spirits and fairy folk. Eventually, people went door-to-door in costume, reciting verses for food. And now we trick-or-treat, with a metric ton of Nerd Gummy Clusters for the bowl on the porch under the watchful eye of the inflatable you swore you’d never purchase.
PSA: Extra hour this Sunday. Maybe spend it in nature?
ELECTION SEASON
🗳️November 4: General Election Day! Vote411 is my favorite nonpartisan resource to know when elections are and what’s on my ballot.
UPCOMING EVENTS
🗓️ Through October 31: Haunted Shores: Haunted House, but make it an abandoned waterpark
🗓️ November 1-2: Travis Heights Art Trail : Neighborhood stroll packed with local artists
🗓️ November 5: Oltorf Block Party: Loro has a stake in this, and that's all you really need to know--it's going to be delicious
🗓️ November 5: Día de los Champiñones: Five course fungal adventure, hosted by Central Texas Mycology
🗓️ November 5: Full Moon Howl: Let ‘er rip at Barton Springs Pool
🗓️ November 8: Austin Food & Wine Festival: Go hungry. Leave full.
DAY TRIP
🚗 November 1-2: Texas Monthly BBQ Fest | Lockhart: Come get your meat sweats
🚗 November 2: Texas State Parks Day: Free entry to any State Park. You can’t go wrong with a trip to McKinney Falls State Park in Austin, Inks Lake State Park in Burnet, or Bastrop State Park in Bastrop.
🚗 November 7-16: Wurstfest | New Braunfels: Lederhosen recommended, but not required. Don a silly little hat, prepare to polka.
LOCAL FARMERS’ MARKETS
👩🌾 Arboretum Food & Artisan Market Saturdays 11-3
👩🌾 Barton Creek Farmers Market Saturdays 9am-1pm
👩🌾 Lakeline Farmers Market Saturdays 9am-1pm
👩🌾 SFC Farmers’ Market Downtown Saturdays 9am-1pm
👩🌾 SFC Farmers’ Market Sunset Valley Saturdays 9am-1pm
👩🌾 Texas Farmers’ Market at Bell Saturdays 9am-1pm
👩🌾 Texas Farmers’ Market at Mueller Sundays 10am-2pm
CRITTER CORNER / SHOW AND TELL
I need to know your mundane wildlife encounters. Think of this as a driveway chat with your neighbor. I’m your neighbor now. Spill the tea.
I’ll go first:
This is not a bird.
Your turn. Email me.
HOMEWORK
Spot a corvid. Give it a little caw.
That’s all for this week!
In the meantime, I hope you form a materially transactional relationship with a smart bird.
-Nicole
OPTIONAL SIDE QUESTS
🪵 What’s this like for you? Email with your perspective.
🪵 Community is thrilling. Email with events I should feature or partnerships/collabs we could consider.
🪵 Donations are a thing. Any dollars from this edition of the newsletter will go toward a pocket stash of unsalted peanuts in their shells.
🪵 Is this newsletter not your vibe? Send it to your enemies to make them suffer too.