Raven Want a Cracker?

 

In view of Edgar, I threw a few crackers in a horse pen (organic garlic naan, and sweet potato crackers, to be precise) - where he’d been picking through horse poo.

I walked away, out of sight, where Edgar couldn’t see me. He strutted over to the crackers, and one by one, picked them up and walked them into the next horse pen, and cached them. Put a cracker on the ground, covered it up with dirt and duff. He ate just one but cached all the rest.

He flew up onto the top rung of the horse pen, and I walked back up to have a conversation with him. “You’re so beautiful Edgar!”

“CAW! CAW! CAW!”

Which I interpreted as, “YES I AM! AND THIS IS MINE AND AIDA’S RAVEN TERRITORY AND I LOVE GARLIC NAAN CRACKERS!”

Raven/Hawk Drama!

I'm getting to know what's going on on the nest by the different call Edgar and Aida make.

The other morning, while Edgar was checking out an egg on the ground, Aida suddenly jumped out of her nest and made short, sharp, high pitched caws I'd never heard before, while she hunched and ruffle-flapped her wings. Edgar froze on the ground. What did this mean?

Suddenly Aida launched off the tree, still letting off caws, clearly agitated about something. Edgar flew to a small tree to monitor the situation.

Aida, still sharp-cawing, headed skyward, where a red-tailed hawk was circling high above. CawCawCawCaw she yelped, flying up toward the hawk. Another Raven (not Edgar... he was staying near the nest) answered her distress call and joined her in the sky, both of them taking turns diving at the hawk, eventually driving it away.

Aida kept up her sky patrol till for sure the hawk had left the territory. The assisting angel Raven flew off.

Danger past, Aida did a Raven tuck and roll as she flew back to her nest, clearly pleased with herself. She settled back down on her eggs.

P.S.:

This happened again this afternoon: CawCawCawCawCaw - I recognized the distress call immediately and looked to see Aida launching off her nest to chase away a hawk circling above. 

Edgar Raven and the Egg

 

What's this? A chicken egg on the ground?!

Edgar sits in the tree a while, eyeing it. He flies down to the ground and lands 20 feet away. He casually struts indirectly toward it, as though he has not the slightest thought in his head about A CHICKEN EGG!!!!!, even though he's got his Raven eyeball laser focused on it.

Aida has her head over the edge of the nest looking down and watching him.

Edgar gets closer.

He does the Raven feint/hop away from the egg, just in case it's a trap and it springs at him! Egg doesn't move!

Edgar steps forward and touches the egg and hops away again, just in case (again) it's a trap!

Edgar grabs the egg then immediately drops it!

For real, IT'S A CHICKEN EGG and it's breakfast! He can hardly believe his Raven luck! Because, as you know, Ravens love chicken eggs.

Aida is shrieking falsetto encouragement from the nest. Edgar grabs the egg again and flies away to eat it, then in a circuitous route, flies to the nest to regurgitate to Aida.

The New Nest at Cottonwood Heights

 

Edgar and Aida decided on the big half-dead cottonwood tree, conveniently right outside our front doors!

Toward the end of March they were diligently building it up with sticks and Raven things. Edgar would fly to the nest with some kind of balls of things... duff? Feathers? They'd stuff things into the nest and Aida would sit and wiggle about getting things just right.

They had to get it all just right; the nest has survived two severe wind storms, one that shredded a neighbor's greenhouse, and ripped the siding off a house trailer.

By April 13th, Aida was sitting on the nest religiously and Edgar bringing her food. They were seen boinking (you know, Raven Love) on the nest on the 13th and 15th.

See Edgar carrying a special stick. Takes a good Raven eye for the right stick for nest construction!

Aida fluffing and arranging and interior decorating

The Nest at Cottonwood Heights

WE HAVE A RAVEN NEST!

Yes we have a Raven nest!

On February 11th I noticed an excessive amount of Raven courtship activity. A pair sat in a cottonwood tree a hundred yards down the crick and yelled at each other. They were apparently discussing a former Raven nest in a tree; it was built but never used. I recognized the female of this pair; she has an unusually high voice for a female Raven. I remember hearing her last fall.

This pair also checked out a couple of other trees, including a big half-dead one right outside my friend's font door (and which I can see from my cabin). There used to be an occupied red-tailed hawk nest in this tree that was used several years ago, but Ravens dismantled it to build their own nest elsewhere.

On March 26th, this Raven pair was definitely building a nest in our big cottonwood tree!

We named them Edgar Raven and Aida Garifullina Raven (after the famous soprano opera singer).

More to come!