Ravens leaving gifts?

[Wicked Blue]

11. About 20 years ago I rescued a crow from a hawk

There was a tremendous commotion on the back patio. When I checked, I found a dozen or more crows screaming at a young hawk that was holding onto a live crow. The hawk must have bumped into something, probably the patio doors, because it seemed dazed.

I carefully removed the crow from its grip, set it down and shooed away the hawk. It was pursued by many furious crows. I'm not sure what the rest of the crows did with the released captive. It didn't seem badly hurt, so maybe they helped it get home, wherever that was.

After that, I noticed that crows were visiting the back yard and dropping off little gifts like bottle caps, bits of foil and so on. This went on for about 5 years and then gradually stopped.