Crows vs Eagle vs Raven

February 23, 2023February 22, 2023 / The Urban Nature Enthusiast / 5 Comments

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!

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Raven Games

March 14, 2019March 15, 2019 / The Urban Nature Enthusiast / 12 Comments

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:

Raven Tutor

Learning to Speak Raven

Special Days (with ravens and mountain bluebirds)

Ghost Raven

Raven Tutor

March 30, 2018February 10, 2023 / The Urban Nature Enthusiast / 10 Comments

Well, obviously the ravens of East Vancouver did not think much of my raven language skills! The very morning I published Learning to Speak Raven, they sent a tutor to teach me some new phrases.

I could hear the crows fussing and a raven making some sounds I’d never heard before as soon as I got up. Threw on some clothes (out of consideration for the neighbours) and rushed outside with my camera — but I’d missed them.

But it was my day for a lesson in raven anyway. When I took Geordie out for his walk later, my instructor returned. She landed on the neighbour’s roof and began a virtuoso performance. I think she may have been trying to show me just how little “raven” I know.

If you don’t see the video below, click HERE.

Apologies for the quality of the video, but it was raining and I had a dog on the end of a leash who was more keen to continue his walk than to hang around watching a raven.