Hyper-Local Crow News

/ The Urban Nature Enthusiast / 4 Comments

Marvin and Mavis have been our “backyard” crows since 2017.

Whenever I’d go out onto the back deck, I’d know that any crow waiting out there or on the neighbour’s roof would be one of them.

Marvin and Mavis (AKA Judgemental Crows) 2017

Don’t worry, they’re still fine!

Plus, Lucky, their 2022 fledgling, is still with them. I see them every day, and all three look tip top.

It’s hard to tell Marvin and Mavis apart at the moment, but Lucky is usually busy and curiou, checking out roof fittings, stray bits of plastic and twigs. Her parents are generally more focussed on “grown-up” crow pursuits like allo-preening, finding edible items and feuding with the new neighbours.

Those neighbours are the reason we don’t see Marvin and Mavis in the yard as often these days.

The Newbies

This pair arrived last winter, nested in the tree across the alley from our garden in the summer and naturally claimed our backyard as theirs. It IS very close to their nesting tree, and years of construction and tree loss in the neighbourhood forced M&M a bit further away.

Marvin and Mavis, in two previous nesting seasons, built nests in the same tree, but were raided by raccoons there so often that they gave up on it.

I’m not sure how “The New Crows” fared with the raccoons, but it seems they’re here to stay — so this week, I gave up mentally calling them “the new ones” and named them — Nancy and Norman.

Marvin and Mavis still visit the garden from time to time — caws for cawing, extreme feather-fluffing and occasional outraged dive-bombing between the families.

But mostly, it’s the cawing.

Team Marvin and Mavis have a clear edge on this front — for two reasons.

First: aptitude. These two have long been experts in the Wall Of Sound technique.

In fact, I wrote about their vocal prowess way back in 2018 in a post titled, you guessed it, Wall of Sound. The two of them have always had the ability to meld their voices into a what sounds like a full-on murder.

Secondly, with the addition of Lucky, they’re well on the way to being powerhouse vocal trio with the ability (at least in their own minds) to move mountains with the power of sound.

Here’s the whole family running through some warm-up exercises the other day …

Lucky’s still in training, and I recently had the chance to observe just how serious the tuition regimen is.

It was a classic two family face-off.

Marvin, Mavis and Lucky had the height advantage in the tree in front of the house. Watch the crow on the right carefully  …

Lucky is in the middle, partly obscured by the branch, but you can see one of her parents giving her a good hard prod every time she even thinks about taking a break from her vocal efforts.

A proud family tradition needs to be upheld — and Norman and Nancy need to be reminded of who is in charge here — so no time for slacking!

Norman and Nancy, however, seem relatively unimpressed — seen here taking a few moments to compose a thoughtful (and loud) response.

I’m hoping that, over the quieter winter months, we might reach some sort of detente, allowing both families to stick around with slightly less racket.

I look forward to keeping up with my old crowquaintances AND getting to know Norma and Nancy better.

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© junehunterimages, 2023. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to junehunterimages with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

 

Recipe for a Raven Scarf

/ The Urban Nature Enthusiast / 2 Comments

One edge of a raven scarf design with a pair of ravens facing each other in one corner of the scarf and a raven perched in a cedar tree in the other. The scarf design has an inner border of cedar wood brown dotted with green and cornered in blue and a wider outer border of black with flying raven silhouettes in white.

LIST OF INGREDIENTS

  • A scattering of ravens (photographed in the local mountains)
  • Cedar boughs to taste
  • A base layer of snow-covered forest
  • One inner border of cedar colours, anchored with raven sky corners
  • One riotous outer border of ravens in mid-flight

METHOD

  • Spend many happy days, over several years, in the mountains looking for and photographing ravens in their home territory
  • Select, from your favourite raven portraits, the most scarf-suited
  • Create an eye-catching, energy-packed border
  • Combine ingredients
  • Neurotically fiddle with the design for days on end before finally sending it off to Montreal to be made into actual scarves.

MORE ABOUT THE MAIN INGREDIENTS

Raven On Cedar

Two corners of the new scarf feature my Raven on Cedar portrait …

This image is from a snowshoeing trip in early 2022, when we were lucky to spend a couple of hours with a raven pair. I took many photographs that day, but the one of the raven perched on the top of cedar tree  became the anchor for the whole scarf design.

Another one of my prints from a photograph taken that day, including both of the ravens …

Raven Connection

And here is our very same raven on that day, calling out from his cedar perch …

 

Scarf modelled by my daughter, Lily.

Raven Romance

The other two corners of the scarf are populated by the Raven Romance pair.

These two were photographed in the same area as the first couple, but almost exactly a year later. It’s very possible they are the same ravens.

It was another rare and wonderful day as we  watched these two chatting away like any established couple and lovingly adjusting each others feathers.

Geordie makes his modelling debut, sporting the 16-inch kerchief version of the scarf.

These are all of the intangible ingredients that went into the scarf. I listed them here just so scarf wearers can know a little more about “their” ravens and, perhaps, feel some of the absolute joy I felt in photographing the ravens and in putting together the scarf design.

If you’d like to know more of the technical details like fabrics and sizes, please head over to the listing in my shop. The scarves, made in Montreal, are currently available to pre-order.

Square scarf design with a raven pair in two corners and a raven perched on a cedar branch in the other two. The background is a texture of snow-covered trees. The whole design is bordered by an abstract design of cedar bark brown picked out with accents of cedar foliage green and tiny corners of sky blue with June Hunter logos in two of them and standing ravens in the other two. The very outer edge is black with a repeating design of flying ravens in white.

 

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© junehunterimages, 2023. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to junehunterimages with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

Ravenspeak

/ The Urban Nature Enthusiast / 17 Comments

Photo of a raven in mid-call with beak wide open and a good view of inside the raven's mouth and throat.

Sometimes it seems like cheating for a self-described “urban nature enthusiast” to follow the urge to get out of the city — to leave the daily crow-banter behind for a few hours and talk to the ravens.

But, every so often, a bit of raven chat is just what’s needed, so off we go.

Quite often, hours of hiking yield zero in the way of raven communication — only the whoosh of wing-displaced air as they sail indifferently by.

Photo of a raven flying in the distance against snow-covered trees

Of late, I’ve been trying my hand (or epiglottis) at raven calling.

My dream: those aloof fly-by ravens will be so intrigued by my eloquent commentary, my fluent greetings, my show-stopping non sequiturs, they’ll do a mid-air U-turn to get to know this fascinating earth-bound conversationalist.

Results, predictably, have been mixed.

But yesterday, on our hike up on Black Mountain, I heard a raven fly over, performed my “come-hither” squawk and, a few minutes later, two ravens landed near us.

Photo of two ravens standing on a mountain rock. One raven is calling with beak open.

Buoyed by my possible success, I attempted a more close-up conversation.

Below are some of the looks I got in response to my conversational gambits.

Curious, bemused …

Close-up photograph of a raven with a bemused expression, staring at the photographer who is trying to make raven sounds.

A mix of horror and astonishment …

Very close up photograph of a raven with a bemused expression, staring at the photographer who is trying to make raven sounds.

Concern. Is the poor thing hurt?

Close up of a raven's face, showing a certain degree of concern.

Another observable reaction to my vocalizations was claw biting. I’m unclear as to whether this was a form of anxious nail-biting (what is she trying to do to us?) or just boredom (when will she stop?) … or none of the above.

Photograph of a raven inspecting one of his own claws

There were some responses from the ravens but there clearly remains a vast gulf of incomprehension between us.  Much more practice is needed.

Photograph of a raven, facing the camera and in mid-call with beak open and wings out.

More hiking. More squawking.

You may wonder what my walking companions get up to while I’m trying out my raven phraseology.

Geordie puts himself into a state of doggy self-hypnosis until this boring phase is over and we can get going again.

Photo of Geordie the black and white dog standing with eyes closed in the winter sunshine.

Phillip, fittingly, takes the time to keep up with his Duolingo Spanish commitments on his phone.  Where, I ask, is the Duolingo Raven module?

Which leads me to wonder: is anyone out there studying what different raven calls mean?

I know that a group in the UK were studying this topic a few years ago as they asked me to submit some of my videos to help with their research, but I’ve never been able to find out what their conclusions were. I’ve been corresponding with a bird rescue volunteer on Vancouver Island who’s trying to compile a guide for volunteers on raven calls but can’t find any comprehensive information either.

Does anyone know if there is, anywhere, a study on the types of raven calls and what they might mean?

Duolingo, are you listening?

Photo of a raven standing on a rock with North Shore mountains in the background. The raven has fluffy and very shiny feathers.

For more posts on the wonder of raven calls:

 

 

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© junehunterimages, 2023. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to junehunterimages with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.