Kevin and the Crowe family dog, Clyde, became quick companions. Kevin likes to play with Clyde’s tail.
A young, friendly crow flying around Haines has a predilection for animated movies and landing on people’s heads. He was a short-term pet to the Crowe family, a sign from God to Amy Nash and the spirit of a dead stepfather, or dog, to the McCartneys. He likes cherries, cat food and ice cream cones. He goes by many names: Crow Bob, Bob the Crow, Caw Caw and Leroy.
“His name is Kevin,” said Jess Crowe, whose family found the abandoned bird during an outing on Pyramid Island this spring. “My son Finn found him when he was a chick. We had him in a little box for a while when he was super little and he had to be hand fed. When he got a little bigger, he roosted outside in the eaves of the house. Then he moved to big spruce trees in the yard.”
Jess Crowe said Kevin would perch on her shoulder and on her dog Clyde’s back. They fed him shrimp, salmon, and dinner scraps.
“He liked cat food and dog food, fruit, cherries off the tree and worms,” Jess said. “He’d try to play with Clyde’s tail sometimes.”
The Crowe family lives on the water running a fish-buying ship during salmon season and they gave Kevin to Joey Jacobson, Merrick Bochart and their daughter Yarona to watch for a month this summer. Kevin started to roam during his stay with Bochart and Jacobson. He visited Bill Finlay in Paradise Cove on one of his outings, Jess said.
Bochart said Kevin needed to eat every few hours when he was young. They eventually taught him how to find wild food such as garden worms and mussels on the beach. “It was quite an experience learning how to be a mama crow,” Bochart said. “It’s a lot of work.”
When the Crowes came back to town on Aug. 10, they brought Kevin back home where he continued to roam, but would always come back, Jess said.
“It’s been a long stretch since he’s come back,” Jess said. “I like to envision he’s out with the other crows. Now I’m worried about him because he is so used to humans. He’d fly and land on your shoulder. I worry that people that aren’t used to that or don’t really like crows might not be so warm to him if he flies right up to them.”
But so far, Kevin has had a warm reception from residents. He’s landed on at least four residents’ shoulders, and heads, on his adventures-mostly along the Mud Bay beach and once as far as Mario Benassi’s taco stand on Front Street.
Jordan Baumgartener said he and his family were having a bonfire on the Mud Bay beach when Kevin flew from a nearby tree and landed on his head.
“We were sitting around the fire and it just came and landed on my head,” Baumgartener said. “Then it walked up and down my shoulders. Then it flew off and watched us in a tree and flew back and landed on my head. I gave it a chip and then it came back to my head.”
They named it Crow Bob, Baumgartener said.
On another of its outings, Kevin joined Susie McCartney and her family as they hiked along the same beach. Susie said the bird hopped along the trail with them for about 10 minutes.
“It totally let me put my hands in front of his face, like two inches away!” daughter Patience McCartney said.
She thought it might be the spirit of the family dog that they buried in a nearby area.
“We also pondered maybe he was the spirit of my late step dad who’s ashes had been spread on the beach a few years earlier,” Susie McCartney said. “We pondered that maybe it was Pop Pop coming to visit us in the form of a crow.”
The McCartneys weren’t the only family to attach a spiritual significance to Kevin’s company. Amy Nash said the crow, who her kids named Caw Caw, showed up nearly two weeks ago as she arrived at her home near Carr’s Cove.
Nash said as she opened the door to get her youngest child out of her car seat, she had a weird feeling that something was watching her. “I turned and it was sitting right there, less than a foot away from my face on the car door. It was looking right at me. I screamed because it was so close. I was so startled I abandoned my child.”
Kevin spent time with the children on their back deck. The kids attempted to catch the crow although it eluded their grasps. The bird eventually flew inside and spent the evening with the children. It played with a purple stuffed monkey and perched on the couch with the children as they watched “Ice Age.”
“We wanted to keep him really bad, but mom didn’t want to,” said Mason Nash, 8.
Amy Nash said Kevin kept a special eye on her throughout the evening, but especially during her evening beach walk. It hopped along with her as she began her walk, when she remembered that bears had been frequenting the area.
“I said, ‘Okay lord, if you sent this bird to me to protect me from bears then I won’t go down the trail if this bird follows me,'” Nash said. “Then the bird dive bombed me and landed on my shoulders and my head. I thought, ‘Okay, I’m not going to go down the trail.”
Nash said she found evidence of bears the next morning along her walking route.
The furthest account of Kevin’s travels was to Mario Benassi’s taco stand next to Canal Marine. Cassie Miller said the crow landed on her car as she was leaving the food truck and didn’t fly away as she drove away. Instead, he hopped into the car.
“I thought, I’m not going fight a crow,” Miller said. “When I got home, he hopped on my shoulder and went with me into my house.”
Kevin followed Cassie Miller home where he perched on her head, played with her crystals and pooped on a chair.
He stayed in their home for several hours, long enough to leave a good impression on everybody, Miller said. Miller’s husband Josh named the crow Leroy after his grandpa. The crow was fascinated by Miller’s crystals, and would put them in his beak and fly away with them.
“He stole the fluorite consistently,” Miller said.
Miller eventually put him outside after he pecked at their insulation. Kevin perched on their cherry for tree for a little whilte before flying away.
“I liked it,” said Corvus Miller, 6. “He did poop on the chair that I was sitting on.”
Jess Crowe said she hasn’t seen Kevin for about a week. The last time her family saw him, they were just about to leave their house. They fed him a little food and said goodbye. He wasn’t there when they got back. Jess said Kevin can be identified by white paint on his feet, and a spot of red paint on his back.
“That could help people tell if its Kevin, although him landing on your shoulder would be a pretty good indication,” Jess said. “I miss him.”
