What the Actual Flock (means to me as opposed to a flocking 2-dimensional recording)

For @nelinoeva's weekly Show Me A Photo Contest in the Feathered Friends Community. This week's theme is BIRDS TOGETHER.

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_{Junior (R) and Lod (L) enjoying scrambled eggs on the cartop terrace on a fine spring morning in Crow Cam: The Entertainer.}

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My YouTube Crow Cams are created by recording feeding sessions with the local crow families I have come to know and love. It's a simple setup: iPhone on a stand (or in this case, on the roof of my car), snacks, and patience. Sometimes lots of patience. And a phone with 256GB of memory even though that's really not enough.

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_{Junior surveys the snack selection while Lod watches the sky for raptors in Crow Cam: Sunday Snack.}

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_{A splendid view of Biggie's underpants in Crow Cam: Crowback Thursday Oct. 10 2022.}

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_{Tarot (L) and dad Zephram (R) declare ownership over the kibble in Crow Cam: Kibble Conquest.}

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_{Momo (L) and her youngster Deglet (R) partake in a puddly snack in Crow Cam: A Swiftly Tilting Planet.}

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_{Basketball Sunny womans the turf on a stormy day in Crow Cam: A Perfect Storm.}

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The videos take only a couple minutes to record, but the editing, processing, and uploading procedure is quite time-consuming. It would be fantastic to get paid for that time, but unfortunately YouTube has not yet determined a value for my labor of love. It started as an experiment, really, one that drew in more followers than I expected. The shorts I share on YouTube channel of crows eating from my hand and standing on my head get considerable attention, but the simplicity of watching crows interact and eat has a much smaller draw.

I'm holding out to see if I can make it work, but if the channel has not started monetizing by the end of the year I will likely let it go. This idea saddens me a little, but as you might glean from the description for the following video, Crow Cam: The Entertainer, it will not by any means be seen as a failure.

Junior and Lod, watching the sky for hawks. The sunny days are often the hawkiest, perhaps because the contrast of a shiny black crow on an illuminated landscape is easy for a raptor’s eyes to spot.

On another note, I’ve been looking at the data on the performance of my channel. While it appears my slow motion intros and fancy thumbnails do draw in some curious visitors, only a small percentage of folks stay for the whole video. I’m guessing that if you are reading this, you are one of them.

It’s neither a complaint nor a judgement, but I do wonder what makes the attention span so short. What makes us seek that reward we find in entertainment, and just how DO we identify our sense of entertainment? I am no different from the next person in this regard when it comes to social media, although I will confess I don’t spend a great deal of time with it outside my own accounts. However, outdoors, in the presence of the actual stars of my Crow Cams, in real nature with real beating hearts, I never swipe away. I don’t get bored watching a crow sleep or a turkey vulture trace circles on a blue sky. But is this actually entertainment? Or simply the sense of awe inspired by my connection, my place on this planet? Am I attempting to recreate this awe for others on a two-dimensional screen? If so, it will never work.

Should you choose to shut off your screen and go outside and stare at your own nature rather than watch my video today, I will not be offended.

I will be delighted.

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Thanks for watching and reading. 🖤

Please consider subscribing to my CrowTube Channel,
Crowstagram, and checking out my NFT Crowroom.

<sub>A percentage of this post's rewards goes back to support the community.
All the stuff (pictures, words, etc.) I put in this post and any of my other posts is mine (unless otherwise stated) and can't be used by anyone else unless I say it's ok.

Plum with an honorary crow in the background in Crow Cam: Little Red Photobomber</sub>