Before she reveals why she started stopping at a bench during her daily walks, Jutta will tell you about the day she began investigating an unusual sound coming from her kitchen. “Let’s see who’s there. Knock. Knock,” Jutta recalls, before clarifying the sound was more a like a flap-flap. “Flutter. Flutter.” A baby sparrow had fallen through a vent and landed on her stove. “We put him in the basket and we fed him daily,” Jutta says. “And then he was a friend of ours.” She named him Max. He got along with her cats, and jumped into Jutta’s pool, trying to join her for a swim. “And then one day he was gone,” Jutta says. Max flew away after staying with her for about two weeks. “(He) grew up.” But Jutta never grew out of her appreciation for having a feathered friend, so when she noticed the crows during her daily walks, she decided to stop at a bench and observe them. “If you’re patient, they’re friendly,” Jutta says. “I don’t want to push myself on them. If they want to come, they’re welcome to come.” And whenever the birds would approach her, Jutta would say “hello” and start a conversation. “I ask them how they are,” Jutta says, adding the crows would sometimes make sounds back. “I love it.” And perhaps the birds love it too, because after Jutta started stopping at the bench every day (“come rain, shine, the odd snow”), more than a dozen crows would congregate around her. “It doesn’t matter what you wear,” Jutta says. “They know you.” The daily visits inspired Jutta to try painting them, which ended up earning her an award from a national arts group. “It was a beautiful, happy picture,” Jutta says, showing a photo of the painting which depicts the crows standing on the wet ground, their image reflected back at them. And if you ask Jutta to reflect on why she stops to visit her feathered friends every day — and why she saved Max the sparrow that first day — she’ll tell you that connecting with wild creatures makes her feel an “inner peace.” “As long as they like me and come (to me), I’m happy.” Jutta smiles, before saying goodbye to the birds and continuing along her walk.
