Some days you lug your camera and long lens over hill and dale” just in case” of ravens. — and never see a single one.
Some days you know they’re there by the distant calls (which can sound a tiny bit like laughter at your expense.)
Some days you wake up at dawn in your hotel room to hear a single raven call right outside your window. You fall out of bed and fumble in the dark to find your eye glasses and then the camera. Stumbling over luggage in the direction of the sound, you see The Raven Of The Lake striding majestically by and manage to take a few frames so you know later that you didn’t imagine it.
Some days you take a photo of a raven when 75% asleep through a dewy bug-screened window and you kind of love it for the magical dream feeling.
It’s a busy Easter weekend with not much time for blog posting, so I’m going to let the ravens do most of the work.
Even as it’s starting to look ever so slightly spring-like down here in Vancouver, it’s still a winter wonderland up on the nearby mountains. As it’s a winter wonderland that sometimes contains ravens, so we try to get out there at least once a week.
The Raven Soap Opera is a short video I filmed when we were up on Seymour a couple of weeks ago. It was Spring Break, a sunny day, and the ski hill was packed when we got back to the ski lift area/parking lot from our early morning expedition.
You can hear the excited buzz of human voices in the background, and that high pitch of human energy was mirrored in a large group of ravens socializing nearby.
Act One:
A raven pair — first just strolling casually along as one of them (Walking Raven Right) makes a quiet but emphatic call — then hopping along with increasing urgency as they near a bigger group of birds congregating on a snow pile ahead …
Act Two:
Now this is where the action really begins. You may need to pause and rewind a few times to catch every little bit of the action.
Our couple reaches the larger group and you can see Walking Raven Right has already decided to make an impressive entrance.
Raven at bottom right with a ball of ice in beak (Ice Ball Raven) can see which way the wind blows and makes a tactful retreat with prize.
WRR gives a haughty head toss upon arrival, immediately singling out one of the group for a thorough verbal dressing down. This raven takes a respectful step back, but not without getting the last word in (Last Word Raven.)
Things calm down momentarily until yet another raven who’d been minding their own business in the background decides it’s time for their moment of glory and dives at Ice Ball Raven.
And that was it — just a few seconds of raven social interaction.
I love these moments because I know they’re just the very tip of the raven iceberg.
It’s tantalizing, wondering about the hours and hours of Ibsen-like drama and dialogue I’m missing when I’m not up on the mountain.
Guess who would come out the winner in this contest?
Well, I have the answer!
Sometimes you see amazing things out in the quiet snowy forest.
Other times you see them amid the roar of traffic on Grandview Highway on a Wednesday morning!
We’d just parked the car when, over the rumble of trucks and much furious crow cawing, I heard a brief raven call.
Looking across the four lane roadway we noticed a lot of crows and one enormous eagle in a tree. No sign of a raven at first.
As we watched we noticed a bird hopping up the tree towards the eagle.
Bigger than the crows and moving with purpose.
Next thing we knew the raven had grabbed the eagle’s tail feather.
We’re not talking about a little playful tug, either — the raven HAULED that eagle right off the branch.
The eagle (a juvenile) took off with what remained of their dignity, pursued by crows.
I couldn’t see if the raven had succeeded in getting something the eagle had, or if he or she was just making a point.
This is what I managed to capture with my phone, from four lanes of moving vehicles away …
Here’s the whole video in real time, which shows the raven slowly climbing up the the eagle and sitting there for a full ten seconds before making their bold move!
