Urgings by Ravens

The raven has to be in my top 5 birds.  I remember 20 years ago how amazed I was to find that they regularly flew over our new house in South Wales; the day at Gigrin Farm when I first realised just how massive they are as one hopped past a smaller buzzard; the amazing range of calls we heard sitting overnight in a Finnish swamp waiting for bears - 33 vocalisations according to one set of researchers - bell-like or knocks so far removed from the standard in-flight 'cronk'; my sheer frustration at how the one visiting one of our feeding sites always knew that my camera and I were there despite all my subterfuge and patience - crows and jays down and relaxed for ages, the raven flying in but just sitting in the tree watching.

On my first trip to Yellowstone I was sad not to get a good view or shot of one.  On the trip this year they were queueing up to be snapped, and Cooke City 'Steve' sat on a car outside the diner and just shouted in my face as I tried to get back far and low enough to focus.

Back home a trip to another red kite feeding station at the weekend didn't lead to any pictures of note, but again those lovely resonant bell calls.

One day I'll get a shot of our local birds.

“Needless to say, urgings by ravens are ignored at one's peril.” James D. Doss