"As the crow flies” seems a weak comparison. The Cambridge Idioms Dictionary says it means in a straight line; the most direct route. After five hours of trying to read the movements of corvids in the wind, to me it implies the contrary. Crows fly with an ability to twist and to turn, to blow like a leaf, to rise and to fall and to rise again apparently vertically. They sometimes hang with no perceptible movement then run in the teeth of a gale, disappearing faster than the wind that carries them away.
By crows, I’m applying a shorthand for jackdaws and rooks as well, and they all made for an exceptionally difficult afternoon’s shooting.
“Crows have the ability to blow like a leaf, to rise and fall and rise again”
At 2pm I put the finishing touches to
