If only I could bring some real crows and ravens along to one of my Raven/Crow presentations; they speak more eloquently for themselves than I could ever do.
This morning they magically appeared to demonstrate many of the things I cover in my talks, in the calendar and here, on my blog.
The crows and I heard the raven at about the same time …
Following the crows, I headed west until I found the source.
For a while, there were only a few crows, mostly keeping a polite distance from the raven while she groomed her feathers in peace.
Gradually, more crows arrived and began to get a little more rowdy.
One crow in particular got up the courage to launch a sneak attack. I love how you can see them pecking the branch aggressively as they advance, building up their nerve for the mission.
The raven, however, was having none of that guff.
The crows got a little more rowdy.
A little dive-bombing ensued.
Still, the raven continued preening and looked quite relaxed.
I feel I should give a shoutout to my companion, Geordie, who had already been waiting patiently beside for me about half an hour at this point.
He accepts that crows are going to mean a slight delay and is always resigned to the fact that ravens are really going to throw a spanner in the walk works.
Philosophically, he lay down to pass the time in comfort.
Good boy!
Things looked to be taking a turn for our raven visitor when I heard a BIG gang of crows coming in from further away.
The raven made one call.
And there, seemingly from nowhere, her* mate arrived.
Note how the crows quickly gave up on the attack.
Two ravens; now that was something to reconsider.
The crows became much quieter and the ravens were clearly happy to be together again.
A few crows swooped half-heartedly by, but our raven couple were oblivious—immersed in affectionate allo-preening and beak play.
The original raven moved away from their mate, ever so politely, to take a poop.
This was their prelude to leaving, flying casually off somewhere to the north.
The crow crowd cawed in corvid victory.
They had ousted the enemy!
Although it seemed more like the barking dog and postie situation, where the house dog feels that their heroic efforts are 100% responsible for the delivery person’s daily retreat.
In less than an hour the obliging crows and ravens illustrated so many points from my talks:
- the relative size of crows and ravens
- the different calls of crows and ravens
- the group action plan of crows
- the pair bond between birds
- how ravens communicate with their mates over long distances
- the affectionate behaviour between raven couples (crows couples also allo-preen, but don’t engage in beak play)
I may have to update a couple of the slides in my presentation with some of these new videos!
* I guessed that the first raven was the female in this couple because of her preening and beak play behaviour. She’s also a lot smaller, which can be a clue — but not always.
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