Risqué Ravens

March 13, 2024March 12, 2024 / The Urban Nature Enthusiast / 5 Comments

Well, you just never know what you might see up on the mountain!

You may remember that I wrote last month about seeing a raven pair devoted to pre-nesting behaviour, with lots of beak play and mutual preening of feathers. I think we saw a different pair on this most recent trip (the male had an oval- shaped eye on one side) — but they were engaged in the same activities.

This female raven was also doing her best fledgling-begging-to-be-fed impression in order to solidly fix in her mate’s brain his future role as sole breadwinner (and bringer) when she’s stuck in the nest on egg-incubation duty.

They did the little “feed me” dance when several times.

The female, it seemed, was sufficiently impressed and convinced of her partner’s proficiency in this matter, because …

*** WARNING: R-Rated Raven Content Ahead ***

After one feeding ritual she bowed down, wiggled her tail and — well — Nature took it’s course!

I really couldn’t believe my luck to have witness this moment! In fifteen years of watching crows in my own neighbourhood, I’ve never seen them actually mating and never expected to see this briefest of brief interactions between a raven couple.

Having seen the female raven’s rumpled feathers right after “the act,” I now find myself looking rather knowingly at my local crows whenever I see one of them in a similarly unkempt state.

Female raven “en deshabille”

The male raven continued to preen and groom his mate because, of course, that ten second act was just the beginning of a long process that will test the trust and partnership between them for many weeks to come.

The loving raven couple with a sweeping view of Vancouver behind them

Our female raven is probably sitting on some newly-laid eggs right now and her well-trained mate is keeping her fed. Two to three weeks of incubating the eggs, and then both raven parents will share the work of keeping the hatchlings fed, guarded and clean, and Mom will be able to get out and about and feel the rush of wind under her wings again.

I’ve no idea where their nest is. As you can see in the video below, it could be almost anywhere!

Raven Courtship

February 22, 2024March 9, 2024 / The Urban Nature Enthusiast / 6 Comments

With no new snow on the mountains and none forecast, we decided to head for the hills anyway. I needed to see some ravens!

Predictably, trail conditions were horrible. There’s enough packed and icy snow in shaded areas to make boot spikes necessary — at least for those of us in the knee and hip replacement candidacy stage of life! It makes for rough-going and ghostly chain-clanking sound effects as your spikes drag over the rock, mud (so much mud) and roots between the sporadic snow patches.

But it was worth the slog on Monday as we witnessed some new-to-us raven courtship behaviour.

At first, the ravens were just quietly calling to each other in the trees, but seeing several groups of hikers putting down backpacks and then walking away (!) to get a better look at the view proved too intriguing for their innate pickpocketing instincts.

They seemed quite young and, at first, didn’t display any romantic behaviour. They hardly even seemed to spend much time close to each other — although that doesn’t necessarily tell you that they’re not “together.” In fact, they were working as a well-practiced team, with one raven distracting the humans while their partner subtly worked their way to the rear — out of sight and out of mind. You’d be surprised how many people only see the one raven in front of them, getting close to their snacks, and think they’ve fooled the bird by cleverly putting the bag behind them! The ravens would be less surprised.

There was at least one other raven audible in the trees and this pair seemed very attentive whenever the hidden raven made the “knocking call.” Head feathers would go up and they would stop everything and listen. I have the feeling that these two were the junior couple in this territory.

After a while they flew off. I thought they’d be gone but, instead, they put on a display that would shame the Abbotsford Air Show. They soared, dipped, barrel-rolled and flew impossibly close to each other — a breath-taking version of Dancing With the Stars! The whole performance seemed like a raven tango.

The formation flying did seem to turn their thoughts to love and courtship.

As soon as they landed I heard a very agitated raven call and, for the first time ever, I saw the raven female imitating a fledgling — begging to be fed by the male.

This is a performance I’ve seen many times between crow partners down in the city, but I’ve never been lucky enough to see the raven version. So exciting!

It’s all part of the preparation for nesting season when, for about three weeks, the female will be completely dependant on her mate for food when she’s confined to egg sitting duty. In order to make sure her partner has definitely got the gist of how things need to go, she’ll start these begging behaviours well ahead of time.

Raven couples are pretty generous with mutual grooming and scratching of the itchy parts that a single raven can’t reach all year round, but they really crank up the allopreening just before nesting season. They need to make sure that the bond between them is solid for all the hard work of nest building, nest guarding and fledgling rearing ahead.

The word “allopreening” doesn’t sound terribly romantic, but lots of tenderness seems to go into the mutual tending of feathers.

Sometimes the result of a particularly thorough head preening can be a bit on the hilarious side …

And the grooming is a two-way process …

So, in spite of the sad lack of snow, it’s still beautiful up on the mountain and worth braving the less than ideal trail conditions.

And one raven sighting is worth slogging through a lot of mud!

Some more posts on raven behaviour, romantic and otherwise:

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Raven Therapy Part Two

March 12, 2021March 11, 2021 / The Urban Nature Enthusiast / 7 Comments

About a year ago I posted the first Raven Therapy story. The world had just shifted in ways that, at that point, we couldn’t really grasp. All I knew was that I needed therapeutic ravens, and that other people might need them too.

Formal raven couple, convinced that this trail has been groomed just for them

I turns out that, in the months since then, there were long periods when it was impossible to get up into the mountains and hang out with ravens — trails being closed to avoid crowding … or trails open, but too crowded to feel safe. On rare and happy occasions a raven or two would grace our neighbourhood.

As we mark the Covid anniversary (even with glimmers of light at the end of the tunnel) I definitely needed a booster dose of raven therapy. Perhaps you do too.

Resisting the covid with the corvid.

These are photos and videos from a couple of recent early morning trips to the local mountains.

Just in case you’re in a rush and don’t have time to read all of this at once, here’s the most potent shot of raven therapy first.

Ravens playing in the snow. In my humble opinion, there are few things more joyful.

If you have time to stay around, I’ll be sharing a few looks at the details of raven beauty and some more observations on their amazing behaviour. A veritable raven therapy spa experience!

Like crows in snow, I love photographing ravens in that pure white backdrop — especially on a nice cloudy day where all the details are revealed.

Raven catching just the softest rays of early morning sunshine

The intricate armour of a raven’s feet

Raven feet and feathers

Raven strut

Raven’s Leap — another excellent pub name!

Hearing a little more of the complicated raven vocabulary is always a thrill (see also Learning to Speak Raven.)

A snippet of raven conversation …

And a general “here I am” raven call …

Perhaps the most joyful sight was this behaviour between a raven pair.

Raven joins her mate

He feeds her. This is preparation behaviour for nesting season, where the female will beg for food from the male to trigger that instinct in him to keep her fed later in the season while she’s sitting on the eggs.

Just after this happened, I saw this rather funny exchange.

Raven couple standing together

A slight head movement …

Beaks touch …

The moment turns into a full examination of his beak for possible hidden snacks — say aaaah

For more raven therapy:

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