I was worried that I wasn’t going to get well soon enough to go up on the mountains again this winter. Luckily, it’s been snowing like crazy up there (as well as in the city!) and I finally started to feel better earlier this week.
Yesterday we headed up to Mount Seymour for a short outing.
Nothing too ambitious, just a nice stroll in the winter wonderland.
The silence in the snow-baffled woods … the traditional peanut butter sandwich at the Dog Mountain lookout … and fresh, fresh air, were all very therapeutic.
But he most joyful thing of all was seeing the ravens playing.
I’ve never seen them have fun with snowballs before, but conditions yesterday were extremely snowball friendly. In fact, I developed a ball of it under one of my feet at the end of our walk. I tried to knock it off with my walking pole, but it was so persistent that part of it was still stuck the underside of my boot when we got home. This snow just INSISTED on being made into snowballs, and the ravens were happy to oblige.
As you can see from the video below, they were quite committed to this game. They reminded me very much of puppies playing.
Gloating when you’ve got the snowball is an important part of the game.
If you lie on the snowball, that makes it hard for your opponent to get it, rather like rugby.
Flying away with the snowball is the final solution.
Let the good times roll!
Just to emphasize how puppy-like the ravens were, here are Geordie and Luke wrestling this morning.
Compare the fun and strategy to these two ravens …
In my trips to the mountains in the winter, I’ve seen the ravens playing in the snow many times — rolling in it, playing with found objects — but I’ve never seen them having so much fun with snowballs. It wasn’t just this one pair either — I could see other groups further away engaged in the same game.
A few minutes later they all flew away to pursue other winter pastimes, so I felt very lucky to have watched this, and keen to share the fun with you!
More raven stories, photographs and video:
Special Days (with ravens and mountain bluebirds)
What a wonderful post! Thank you!
Such luck to come across this play. They are so intelligent. Glad you are feeling a little better. Carell
With part of my bathroom ceiling caved in and waiting for a month’s worth of snow to melt from the roof to have it replaced, not my happiest part of winter, but I can finally sit back and smile in my heart viewing the carefree playfulness of my favorite birds (previously chickadees)! Thank you for your exploration, sharing, and timing. Have watched this twice now and think I can take a deep breath and prepare for the next adventure – thank you soooo much!
Diane Spellman
Yikes, Diane — that sounds terrible. But I’m glad the ravens proved therapeutic. They were for me too, after being sick for so long it felt like heaven to be watching them having such playful time. Good luck with that ceiling. <3
What a fascinating bit of behaviour, lucky you! Great photos
Yes, I felt extremely lucky. I’ve watched ravens play before, but the snowball element was a first for me.
Thank you so much for sharing this! 🙂 <3
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Very interesting blog..good work on your part. I spent 44 years in the north and have a lot of respect for the corvid family, I am sure the Ravens are smarter than any one realizes. They are very hardy survivors.
I will leave a link documenting just one of my Raven experiences.
https://bunchgrassandmountains.blogspot.com/2008/01/
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