Its almost Halloween. Befitting the season, our coastal crows those beady-eyed, black screamers fit right into the time of year that salutes dark and scary lore; a group of crows is poetically referred to as a murder, after all. Edgar Allan Poes 1845 poem about the crows cousin, The Raven, is full of demons, tragedy and pain, bringing to mind the creepy sense of ghosts and goblins waiting to grab us. Mexicos Nov. 1 celebration, the Day of the Dead, has long associated crows and ravens as harbingers of death, and in European literature youll find crows and ravens escorting recently deceased human beings into the unknown, aka (whispered tones advised here) the Otherworld. American Indians believed the crow to be a trickster, and Celtic mythology associated the crow with magic.

Its quite the frightening reputation for a bird weighing somewhere between one and two pounds. But in spite of all those squeamish labels, here comes the amazing news. Crows are super smart; in fact their family group, the Corvidae, are more intelligent than almost all other birds and animals. It turns out they really do have something to crow about.

In Northwest author Brian Doyles novel Mink River, the central character, hero, generous spirit, odd intelligence and comic brilliance of the crow at the center of the novel became the focus of the cover. Crows (and their cousins, the jays and ravens) are not only among the smartest of all animals, they are given to comedy, a sign of surpassing intelligence The great writer, Ian Frazier maintains that crows actually do run the world and let us think we do for their own amusement: thats why they are cackling all the time, wrote Doyle in a recent email exchange.

Once theyre on to you, using Halloween masks to hide behind wont fool most crows. In a well-known study, University of Washingtons John Marzluff, a wildlife biologist, wondered if crows could identify individual researchers. To test the birds recognition of faces separately from that of clothing, gait and other individual human characteristic, Dr. Marzluff and two students wore rubber masks. He designated a caveman mask as dangerous and, in a deliberate gesture of civic generosity, a Dick Cheney mask as neutral. Researchers in the dangerous mask then trapped and banded seven crows on the universitys campus. In the months that followed, the researchers and volunteers donned the masks on campus, this time walking prescribed routes and not bothering crows. The crows had not forgotten. They scolded people in the dangerous mask significantly more than they did before they were trapped, even when the mask was disguised with a hat or worn upside down, wrote Michelle Nijhuis in a 2008 New York Times article.

And Trick or Treat? At Astoria Golf Club, when a golfer grabs a snack at the turn, its a well-known fact that unless he or she protects the treat, well-fed birds give some kind of crow high-five indicating its time. One story goes: a crow swiped a sandwich filled with meat, cheese and tomato. Apparently not a fan of tomatoes, the sandwich disappeared after the tomatoes were removed. Another day, in swooped a tidy crow. Away went a sandwich. Shortly after, the sandwich wrap was returned back to the original owner. Unopened potato chip bags, sealed candy bars and packaged peanuts also make the menu. Theyre never much of a challenge; the crows thick beak is more than adept at peck-to-open pleasures.

Be ready this Halloween a murder of crows may be close by to haunt and tease. And keep in mind, sharing a treat or two from your collected stash with a crow is a sure bet your generosity will be remembered for long, long time.