B6 - The Terrace. Standard Wednesday, October 4, 15 : J ‘TERR AC E STAN D AR D SPORTS.MEN SKEENA ANGLE ROB BROWN The cagey crow NUMBER of years ago, on my way into a local tackle store, | met friend on the way out clutching a. life-sized effigy of an owl. Since this was my first sighting of this particular species — and a fierce-looking plastic bird it was — I naturally inquired as to his plans for it: ‘Tt's' a deek,” he replied, then seeing my puzzled look, hastily added, ‘'to attract crows.”’ During the rest of our short conversation I learned that. gunners, playing on the natural anlipathy crows have for owls, eagles and other raptors, formerly used stuffed specimens of the real McCoy as decoys. It’s probably fortunate that this: practise has since been outlawed by wildlife officials who feared it might adversely impact owl populations. Ersatz owls were still fair fow! though. My friend planned to mount his on a fence post-and wait for the black birds. to appear ‘whereupon he was going to blast them to oblivion. “Why do want to shoot them,” I asked. “To see them dic,’’ he replied, grinning. The crow, with his raucous call and. his ebon plumage has long been associated with the dark side of the mythological force. Like his cousin the raven, he has been séen as a link with the underworld, the pet of witch and warlock, a - feathered enigma. Man’s distaste for the crow is woven into the language: whales come in pods, sheep in flocks; -}- but an assembly of crows is a murder, Cor-') J°: _vidologist, Glenn” Grieve, suggests ; thit ‘the ~-f. 7: secds of man’s dislike for ravens and crows — may have been sown on: ancient. battlefields where men, dead and dying provided an ex- cellent food source for the opportunistic feeders. You can easily imagine the repugnance with which medieval men viewed the raven’s habits of picking out the eyes of carrion creatures with its broad black beak. Like ‘another victim of folklore, ihe wolf, the crow is.a varmint whose eradication is easily justified by Homo (who, ironically, may well prove to be the varmint’s varmint when past performance is considered). Yet crows, it turns out, possess many traits we not only admire in other creatures but aspire to ourselves, When it comes to their home life crows and their relations act like good Chris- tians: they mate for life, dote on their offspring, and, for the most part, practise monogamy. Crow dads are charming courtiers and good pro- viders. Both parents are tender and protective. Because our brain power is the only reason we humans have survived thus far, we prize it in other creatures. The family mutt is lovable and obedient, good qualities to be sure, but canine intelligence is the daggy trait we value most. Well, compared to crows and other members of the corvid clan, dogs are dolts, Scientists tell us that the crow family has the largest cranial capacity relative to body size of any bird. Crows have been seen dropping nuts on high- ways from great heights in order to gain access to the meat inside. They will hide food ali over the landscape then recall the precise location of all the caches. And, when it comes to the highly intelligent act of communication Fido will have grer, yip, woof, and perhaps a howl or two in his vocabulary while corvids have, at last tally, no fewer than 32 different forms of call at their beck and call (and possibly combinations there- - of) to impart information to their pals, Another sure sign of high intelligence isa sense of humour. Your dog doesn’t have any. Monkeys do, Crows do too. Some Gitxsan tales feature an impish trickster, a native Per Gynt, called Weeget. One of Weegcet’s tricks is to transform into a raven — good casting by the Storytellers for Corvidists have observed crows Startling other animals just to see them jump. In the best Disney style crows have been seen hanging upside down by one leg from the bough ofa tree with apparently no other Teason than to entertain their fellows.. I mentioned that crows appear to have high moral standards, but they are formicators, that is, they have been known to disturb then squat upon ant hills. The reason for this curlous be- haviour, according to one school of ornithologi- cal thought, is that the birds like the feeling of pismires scurrying through their feathers and swarming over their bodies. Finding food is relatively easy for crows and their brethren, giving Ravens, for cxample, lots of free time for sliding down snow hills on their backs, flying upside down, juggling sticks, play- ing king of the hill and other games for no rea- "son except to have a damn good time, As it tums out, the wise old owl is as ‘dumb as a door knocker while the raven is bright bird with a lesson or two to teach us. BACK-TO-BACK rounds of 979 carried Tyler Gibson to his second consecutive Skeena Valley Junior Club Championship over the Sept. 23-24 weekend, Gibson finished the first day of the 36-hole tourmey five adrift of Terry Smith who had carded a blistering 35’ on the home nine for a 74 tally. But it-all went, awry for the leader on Sunday, a.49 on the front nine putting him in a hole that proved to deep. Meanwhile, the only other contender on the home stretch, Scott Rigter, fashioned a late charge but hauling back even four shots over the last three holes was not. enough —- his 160 fell two short of Gibson and Rigler settled for the over- all low net title. There were no such close battles in ‘the three-player ‘A’ flight, Kevin McNee strolling to the low gross with a-171, a dozen clear of Brett Downie. Despite stuttering on. Sun- day, Carmen McColl had’a big enough lead to.hold off War- ren Eichorst in ‘B’ Flight by five strokes. . And in the- Extended. Flight Ken Ejyolfsen gave - Ryan Nixon a six stroke start going into the final day and got home with two to spare. - That flight also saw the debut of Chad Casper, an eight-year-old spectators de- scribed as barely bigger than | his: golf club bag. However; he’ _ scored. big-i in.their. eyes, witha. remarkably smooth swing that holds out great promise for the - Gibson’s steady -MALCOLM BAXTER 638-728 future. 7 On the Girls ‘deJong ‘beat ott lone rival’. Susan | Groat for the low gross “Fhe” ‘Junior was the last tournanient of the” season for the Skeena Valley — Leaves scramble on senda. Bluebacks back and aiming Thigh: THE BLUEBACKS are back in the water and going into the new season on a high. The reason is the latest rank- ings publistied by Swim Cana- da magazine. — the 1995 long course season Top 25. They show the Points North 4x 50m Medley relay quartet, which included Terrace’s Tristan Brownand Bryan Pal- ahicky, recorded the second fastest time in Canada for i- 12 Boys. Brown, Palahicky and club- a Number 1 THE UNDER-12 Selects did Terrace Youth Soccer - mate Kyle Naitz also made the standings with a 14th fastest time in the 4 x 50m Free, less than a second out of the top ten. Brown also appeared in three individual events, the 50m Free (24th), 1500m Free (21st) and 100m Fly (23rd). Also making the rankings, this time in the 13-14 years Boys division, were Garth Coxford and Chris Kerman. Coxford’s 2:22.96 in the 200m Fly earned him a 13th proud in the annual Riverboat Days tourney. The squad didn’t give up a goal on the way to a clean” sweep of their Kitimat and Kitwanga o ponents, Seen above are (Back row, left to right) Mike Prest, Steve — Cullis, Brenden Chesterman, Sean. Dusdal,. Aaron Gingles, Mark Viveiros, coach ‘Allan: Hopkins and ’ spot while Kerman was 21st in both the 100m and 200m Back. ; Understandably pleased with ‘the results, coach Mike Car- -lyle said ‘he expects to see several more Blueback names on the lists when the Top 50 rankings come out. ~ As for this season, the club is off to an excellent start with a strong registration that in- cluded both many returnees and a number of newcomers. Carlyle said registration was around the 70 mark but the club could squeeze in a few more members in the Novice .- ° and Developmental I pro- grams. He said a good starting age for kids was seven years and they should have passed the Maroon level of the Red Cross program. Assisting Carlyle in coach- ing this year will be Josslyn Bagg who will again be work- ing with ihe Developmental IT group while Peter Hepburn Cont'd on page B7 (rront row) Sean Mahoney, Ken Eyjolfson, Josef uben, Jon Sarsiat, Pierce Fifiald, Tyler Sheasby, Grant Cummins and William. Prest. That's shut out : oalie Brian Todd relaxing in from of the group. It was*:’ : ie second consecutive yeat the Selects had won it.