A CANADIAN TRADITION

Lumberjack rescues crows from felled tree, teaches them to log roll

June 18 (UPI) -- A Nova Scotia lumberjack who rescued three young crows from a felled tree said the birds are now thriving -- and he's taught them how to log roll.

Darren Hudson of Barrington said he was on a job in early June when he felled a tree and discovered he had disturbed the nest of three young crows.

"When it came crashing to the ground these guys were sitting there looking up at me and I was like 'Oh my gosh, I can't believe this,'" Hudson told SaltWire.

He put the crows in a box and left them in a nearby open field, but there was no sign of the birds' parents.

"I kept them in a box wide open in the field I was working on that day, but the parents weren't around. And so I took them home that night," Hudson told Global News.

The lumberjack said he tried again the next day, but there was no sign of the mother and father crow, so he took it on himself to finish raising the birds to adulthood.

"We're just good buddies. We've really bonded, maybe spiritually," he said.

One of the crows has a foot injury and is currently living with some friends who have experience with animal rehabilitation, but the other two have become Hudson's near-constant companions.

Hudson, who has been chronicling his life with the crows on YouTube, said he has now taught the birds how to log roll.

"Of course, they have good balance, but these guys really took to it. It was no problem for them to jump on the log and they stayed right there, and I rolled that log back and forth and they really enjoyed it," he said.

Hudson said they showed real skill at the sport.

"They're not as fast as a dog but they can stay right up there and if they start to get too far back on the log, they flap their wings and it brings them right on top again so they might have got their tail feathers wet, but I couldn't dunk them," Hudson said.