Dear diary....ravens....
Well, I just want to put this down before I forget...and this is one place I know I won't lose it...and besides, no one reads this but me....
So about the pair of ravens I have been feeding for a couple of years...
Last spring I caught them doin' it in the road (just like the Beatles' song) in the spring, but I'm not sure which month it was (dammit). Edit: Feb 26 last year is when I witness the notsohot raven sex...Don't know the gestation time for the laying of eggs, though...
A short while ago I looked out the window and there was one of the ravens waiting patiently for me to notice it was there and toss is some vittles. Sometimes the other raven is waiting in a huge pine in my backyard and comes swooping dramatically down after her mate has sealed the deal (for some food); sometimes she's off doing other stuff (whatever ravens do in their spare time). So, I toss out a handful of heart-shaped dog biscuits to the one raven in the yard and start to head back in, when I see her landing across the street on the long arm of a 2x4 holding my mailbox...not so unusual Except that she has in her beak a couple of foot-long sticks with little twigs here and there. She sees her partner is getting some food and shakes the sticks, looks at her partner, bobs her head up and down and makes a decision to put them down on the board, breaks off a twig that was sticking out of the works, picks them back up again (now I'm wondering if she is going to choose nest building or dinner) then she flies the short distance across the street depositing her nest sticks on their usual hangout: a berm of snow at the end of my driveway. She leaves them there on the berm and goes to get a dog cookie. I see she thinks about trying to manage a cookie and the sticks and to my dismay, she opts for cookie only and flies away. Her partner (I'm pretty sure it is the male who is left) finishes his cookie, picks a couple of them up and tamps them into the snow hiding them for later...climbs up the berm and picks up the sticks his wife left. He did this weird shaking of them, backandforth, like he was measuring something, then he took off with them in his beak....so he did pick up where she left off...and I stopped feeling guilty about interrupting nest building with a tasty snack.
I find them endlessly fascinating.
So about the pair of ravens I have been feeding for a couple of years...
Last spring I caught them doin' it in the road (just like the Beatles' song) in the spring, but I'm not sure which month it was (dammit). Edit: Feb 26 last year is when I witness the notsohot raven sex...Don't know the gestation time for the laying of eggs, though...
A short while ago I looked out the window and there was one of the ravens waiting patiently for me to notice it was there and toss is some vittles. Sometimes the other raven is waiting in a huge pine in my backyard and comes swooping dramatically down after her mate has sealed the deal (for some food); sometimes she's off doing other stuff (whatever ravens do in their spare time). So, I toss out a handful of heart-shaped dog biscuits to the one raven in the yard and start to head back in, when I see her landing across the street on the long arm of a 2x4 holding my mailbox...not so unusual Except that she has in her beak a couple of foot-long sticks with little twigs here and there. She sees her partner is getting some food and shakes the sticks, looks at her partner, bobs her head up and down and makes a decision to put them down on the board, breaks off a twig that was sticking out of the works, picks them back up again (now I'm wondering if she is going to choose nest building or dinner) then she flies the short distance across the street depositing her nest sticks on their usual hangout: a berm of snow at the end of my driveway. She leaves them there on the berm and goes to get a dog cookie. I see she thinks about trying to manage a cookie and the sticks and to my dismay, she opts for cookie only and flies away. Her partner (I'm pretty sure it is the male who is left) finishes his cookie, picks a couple of them up and tamps them into the snow hiding them for later...climbs up the berm and picks up the sticks his wife left. He did this weird shaking of them, backandforth, like he was measuring something, then he took off with them in his beak....so he did pick up where she left off...and I stopped feeling guilty about interrupting nest building with a tasty snack.
I find them endlessly fascinating.
posted by Laurie at
5:37 PM
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