Many years ago I had the opportunity to
help out an abandoned baby Raven. This tale is told in more detail in both
picture book and a short film called "Bob, Huey & Me" so I'll just give you a quick
overview for those not familiar with the story. I found a very young bird that was
obviously way too young to fly. Seemingly perfectly healthy,
I cared for it and protected it from harm just until it could fly, and then it
was free to do whatever it wanted to do. But there's a relationship issue I need
to talk about because in the short time I nursed this raven back into the wild
I learned Ravens are more unique than I ever dreamed they could be. Can I show what
kind of grip you have on my arm? I can? I was curious to see if I could see the
same behavioral traits in the wild birds and if they would manifest in a similar
or completely different way. So I had to find out and that's what brought me to
the wild Ravens I had seen for many years every time I passed Crystal Cove
State Park. Which even before my Raven fascination was one of my favorite
drives in all of Southern California. This gorgeous stretch of wilderness on
Pacific Coast Highway is on the south end of Newport Beach just before you get
to the city of Laguna. What follows is the true stories I have videotaped over
the last two decades with the birds. At times I will be sharing my prior short
stories with Huey, and then giving examples of what I have experienced with
the wild Ravens in different parts of the country. I hope you will be as amazed
and entertained by these truly magnificent birds as I am! Nice catch! Crystal Cove is a California state park
with a vast array of native wildlife on land, in the sea, and in the air. Hundreds of different
migrating birds (hello pretty bird) and there are numerous marine mammals that pass by
at different times of the year! A mom and a baby. There's a tail! Crystal Cove
is also an historic area with the only Depression era squatters village left in
the entire California coast. Visitors can rent these amazing cabins and stay here
as long as a week. And, Crystal Cove is home to the four Raven families I've
tracked and befriended since the early 2000's. I've spent countless hours with these
birds sometimes sunrise, to sunset, keeping a video log of both the adults,
and the young they raise each year. It is here where I've gotten many of my Raven
questions answered in addition to a host of new material I learned every season
of every year. These are completely wild birds with absolutely no physical human
contact at any time in their life. In all the time I've spent with these birds
I've only had actual contact four times. Once just to see if I could, the other
three times were because of injuries. before I begin let me answer a few
questions I think you may have as we go along. Let's start with how can I tell
the different birds apart? And how can I tell male from female? Keeping
track of the different couples is pretty easy for me because Ravens are so
territorial. I can almost draw a line in the sand and
show you where each of the couple's territory starts and stops and where
the next couples territory begins. I can do this pretty consistently all the
way down the entire beach. Currently, in 2017, there are four couples and their
territories are just about a mile each along the beach. There's Gus and Lisa,
Harold and Maude, the Moro's, and then a fourth couple I've never named. This
couple nests on the other side of Coast Highway and just come and use the beach
so I basically just watched them. Oonce in a while I get visiting Ravens who don't
belong but they're pretty easy to tell because they're the ones getting chased
out. Now as far as male from female this is not so easy to be sure because Ravens
look so much alike. But there are ways! The best is to pay attention during both
the mating season and the nesting season. In this park only the female incubates
the eggs and the male feeds the female while she's on the nest. Therefore during
this time the male will be the one out and about collecting food to feed her
while she is on the nest. Note she will take a break once in a while and when
she does she plays! So we look and we watch him closely, and
see if we can find a feather missing, or some other distinctive mark like my
favorite pair Harold and Maude. Notice the difference in the bills, hers has a
hook on the end, and his doesn't. Also, Harold has one foot that is white and
more swollen than the other so even high in the sky this one is pretty easy for
me to tell. Another thing I find very interesting is that each of my couples
are completely different. In one couple it's the male who's the brave one, in the
other couple it's the female! The difference in the individual Birds
personality is far more unique and quite easily detectable in Ravens if one takes
the time to get to know them. And when we know the features of each individual
bird at Crystal Cove, even when all eight get together and meet and play on a
windy day, we can pretty much tell who is attending the party! When visiting other
parts of the world I used the same criteria. Here you'll see one of my
favorite couples at Bryce. Notice the male is obviously bigger and with a
heavier bill. The female is smaller and she makes more noise. And, he feeds her at
nesting time. And in this couple he is by far the more brazen of the two. One other
important question before we get started why do these wild birds have anything to
do with you in the first place? Well, first you have to understand Ravens are
naturally curious, if you're quiet and genuinely curious about them, they will
notice and they will be curious about you! Second, my father was a forest ranger
when he was young, and he taught me the wisdom of moving roadkill off the road
so that other animals like, bobcats coyotes, cougars and numerous birds won't
get killed trying to dine out in the middle of the street. Well guess what?
The bobcats in the coyotes didn't notice me moving the stuff, but the Ravens sure
did! Want me to move that out of the road for you? I see what you're after... So now whenever I enter the park, they will check to see if I'm carrying! We'll begin in spring! (Hi bud, what are you doing?) And then I'll take you through each of the other three seasons and show you how
the birds develop through all of their growth stages. From egg, to nesting, to
fledgling, to juvenile, to sub adult and what they will be learning in each of
these four seasons before they are old enough to find a mate and territory of
their own! Every Raven begins its life in an egg
that's laid in a one-of-a-kind nest that only Ravens make! The female may lay
anywhere between one and eight eggs. Because I conduct my study in a
protected State Park, I purposely don't bother the birds during the nesting egg
stage and although I still keep my distance, a strong zoom lens can bring us
in on all the action. All of my Raven couples generally have between three and
six young in what is called a brood. There's only been one year when one
couple just had one single nestling in its brood. Ravens grow very fast and
appear very close to adult size in just about three weeks. Here's what it looks
like from my view! By this time when I point out the baby Ravens to visitors I
always hear that's a baby? During this time in the nest they are already
getting used to competing with their siblings for food, the best spot to sit,
mom or dad's attention, and even before they get out of the nest they learn the
art of teasing and are already very aware of the reaction they'll get by
pulling their siblings tail, wing, or just about any feather. The shortest time
period I recorded was 21 days from hatchling to flying but more often than
not it takes somewhere around 30 days before they will actually start to try
to fly. Then they will spend a good amount of time standing on the edge of
the nest and practice flapping their wings. And although I've seen many close
calls, I haven't witnessed anyone pushing their
sibling completely out of the nest, yet. As the young bird actually begins to
fly, I noticed the environment has already
had an influence on the birds. The birds on the cliff sides always seemed to fly
sooner. They don't have any choice compared to the birds
born in the trees because with the cliff dwellers it's all or nothing. They can
traverse little areas on the cliffs but those areas are small and quite limited.
The parents build the nests in these hard-to-reach places on purpose so
snakes squirrels bobcats and other animals can't get to the young. Now my tree
born young have a lot more area where they can hobble around and they can
begin making smaller hops and generally shorter flights. I say generally because
every once in a while one will surprise itself by over committing. All Ravens
soon learn flying, and landing, are two very different things.
Once the cliff dwellers have made the leap they are fully committed and
landing can be quite dangerous. Usually it's pretty funny and no one gets hurt. Yep sometimes their landings are not
quite so good yet. (Nice show) Fortunately in all the years I've only seen this
happen once. She was okay but kind of banged up, and for many months she was
very easy to tell from her sibling because her wing was pretty beat up. The
tree dwellers have their obstacles too! Sharp sticks and bent branches can
certainly get in the way but here again in all the years working with these
birds only one tree dweller broke a wing during one of its premiere flights. But
for both sets, tree and cliff dwellers they've got to be able to get up and off
the ground and know when to stay off the ground. Because depending on what part of
the world they're in, there's many that would like these young Ravens for lunch.
A young raven caught on the ground is no match for many adult animals out hunting
for food for its own young. But now it's time to fly! Our introduction process, we go through it
every year, let's get used to the human. He's trying to get up to mom. If there's
a time in my relationship with my wife where I could say I might bug her a bit
it would be when the baby Ravens are learning to fly. Fortunately, I have my
class I teach at Crystal Cove every Wednesday so at least I get to have
breakfast with them once in a while, and spend much of the day knowing they are
close by. But even on days off I'm asking "Want to go down to Crystal Cove?" a little
more often than maybe she might like to hear, See I just marvel at the whole
flight thing and watching the young Ravens do it every year never gets
tiring because it seems there's always something new, something unique. Each and
every year one will do some unique maneuver I've never seen or caught on
tape before . One year they're chasing pigeons, the next they're chasing
peregrine falcons that would just as soon have them for lunch. For me it's a
very exciting time and they seem to know it because right from the get-go they
immediately try all kinds of flips, quick turns, some of which are so fast, I didn't
see very well until video cameras started giving us 60 to 120 frames per second.
nNw I can slow it down and catch many of these crazy and intricate moves provided
of course they are, one in focus, two well-lit, and oh, not in the Sun. We
learned with our bird they're really not taught to fly they just do it naturally!
It's almost magic! Each day they get more confident and they begin to make their
way further and further from the nest area. There so cute! Oh yeah, they're just learning how to fly, I wonder of they have more than one? Yeah they have three. The parents. that's not Harold & Maude? Oh yeah,
it's Harold Maude! I love it when Harold and Maude kids finally make it out to
the education Commons area where I teach my class every Wednesday. I get to watch
them all day long and of course all the participants in the class get an
eye witness lesson on Ravens and crows that day, whether they want it or not! Right
there see how much larger she is? huh huh yeah it's got much more of a diamond
shape to it. mm-hmm
Where's your siblings huh? Within a week or two they become extremely proficient
in the air. They quickly learn to chase and that
they can keep up with just about anything in the sky. Although they are
still quite weary and wouldn't know what to do with something if they actually
caught up with it. In fact many times I can see them purposely holding back from
getting too close to whatever it is they're chasing. All this amazing aerial display Hi bud, Hi there! That's a little more like it.
But then they still have quite a ways to go when it comes to landing, or sitting
on a wire. Nice move, nice, yeah I like that can you do that again? Nice move! I've noticed every brood has its runt.
What I don't know is how the runt of the brood is determined by the siblings. What
I mean is I don't know if the runt is the last one born? Or the weakest of the
group. ? And by weakest I don't know if that is actually a physical
characteristic, like being the smallest? Or if it's something that is somehow
perceived by the siblings? Or is it a personality thing, like someone who just
prefers to avoid conflict with others so they just choose to keep quiet and
submit to the group? Whatever it is there is always one. It took me a couple of
years to notice but in time I realized a few special things about the runt. This
bird is the one I find spending so much time alone totally entertain somewhere
up on the hill, digging in the sand, or playing with some special treasure all
by itself. No surprise but the runt is almost
always the last one to bathe, the last to bed at sunset. And the last to care whether it eats or
not. But what kind of surprised me is that by going over my tapes year after
year it seemed more often than not the runt was also the one, that because he
was the last one and alone. he put on the best flying show. Sometimes flying faster
and cutting sharper turns and spins than the others. The rut was also the one who
most likely stayed behind with me and either played, or talked and he'd jabber
sometimes for over an hour at a time. Just know that this was especially
entertaining and for me if I didn't have to go anywhere. He'd start and I just set
up my camera and let it roll. There were a number of years when the runt was
quite brave and would even sit and jabber with me when park visitors
would come within feet of us. Their question to me is usually is that your
bird? I'd laugh and say no he's totally wild bird! I kind of enjoyed the fact
that people would just be amazed by that! Of course like it or not they got a
raven lesson too! Is that your pet bird? Nope, completely wild, so are these two. I'm trying to get him to talk. Usually,
he'll talk to me for 45 minutes to an hour. Where's your siblings? Now that they are out and about and
getting far more confident with their flying skills they become far more aware
of their environment and other things they share their territory with. That
includes me! This is one of the more vulnerable times in their life because
they start following and mimicking the parents, and I don't think they quite
perceive their mortality yet. One of my biggest hurdles with Huey,
the young bird I helped to get back into the wild, was how to teach him to fear
things that would harm it. Fear for these young birds is not instinct the parents
have to teach them this. He's just trapped there and he's trying
to get the owl out. He wants him to leave. One of the ways the parent does this is
by a certain call it makes when the young birds are too close or doing
something they shouldn't. It's kind of funny because each year one of the adult
birds, in two of the couples I work with, will treat me just like I'm an unwelcome
dog for a short period of time. And with the other two couples both
birds are completely comfortable with the young coming within inches of me
right from day one out of the nest! Watching the young ones dive-bomb the
bobcats, chase after coyotes, follow their parents to help run off
Hawks, play with peregrine falcons as the adults it's safe on the ground, is an
emotional rollercoaster to be sure. Even though I haven't witnessed it myself, I'd
be willing to bet every once in a while one gets too carried away or careless
and gets caught. The caretakers at the Grizzly and Wolf Discovery Center in
West Yellowstone, Montana told me their wolves catch one or two a year. Hi there!
You gonna be my talker this year? In The Raven Diaries Crystal Cove edition, I made a
video log of the first three years I had a video camera and could tape the birds
as they raised their families. In it I share the fact that each year some of
the young birds would all of a sudden be gone and how I'd start my season with
say five birds and end with as few as one or two that
would be sent off as independent juveniles. Sometimes I knew what happened
to the young birds and sometimes I didn't. I always wondered when I was
leaving the park and one of the babies was playing with a red-tailed hawk,
if I'd ever see him again. And then there'd be times when I'd see a bobcat
in the nesting area, and sure enough the next day one of the young would be
missing. But on these occasions I have no way of being sure what got it. I can smell ya!. It's hard to explain to people
what a joy it is just being able to be so close to them as they grow and get
more curious about everything around them. OK, thank you that though. The sibling relationships also continue to develop. We've already mentioned the runt but I also learned who
is the more dominant one in the brood, and who are the more subservient. The
pecking order isn't as pronounced and obvious as chickens but it's there. One
thing you need to understand here is to be able to be this close, you have to
have been deemed trustworthy. Adults ravens wouldn't allow just anybody this
close to their newly flying young, so I consider a great privilege afforded to
me by the adult birds. But also know it doesn't come cheaply, it has cost me
dearly. I already told you why the adult Ravens started following me, because they
watched as I moved roadkill off the road, but why would the young have anything to
do with me? Well in some ways they are just like kids, if you want their respect,
if you want them to want to spend time with you, then you have to be willing to
spend time with them doing what they like to do! And that's exactly what I do!
And like owning a dog, the more time you spend with the dog, the more the dog will
reward you with its affection. The birds are very much the same. As an example
here is the one time I tested how close I could get to the Ravens at the park.
One of the young was on the fence sitting perfectly unafraid. So I slowly
walked up, put my arm out gently just under him to see if I could get him to
hop up on me like Huey used to do. Sure enough he did. But notice Maude was
watching in the background, and as soon as he gets on, listen to the scolding she
gives both of us telling us he's too close! Now I only did this once because
the park rangers would kill me if I got the birds
so comfortable around people. Could you imagine a bird of this size all of a
sudden diving down and attempting to land on your arm? Your shoulder? Or your
head? That would certainly scare the badoogees out of most park visitors! They surprise and even scare enough people
already without my help. Hi there! But I do spend some time trying to teach some
other things that wouldn't make them a bother to park visitors. For some birds
it's to learn one or two human words, "hello" is about all I've ever gotten them
to say. Hey guys want to get up in the air and play a bit?
You sure look good! Yeah you do. Just can't believe you're staying here
so long. I also try very hard to teach them to try to find and pick up seaglass.
Let's go get some. See I teach a class at the park every Wednesday on how to make
things, mostly jewelry like pendants bracelets and earrings out of the sea
glass that washes up onto the beach so when I'm out on the beach, I naturally
look for it. I try to get the young Ravens to help me because they are so
curious watching me as I'm looking and poking about.
And, I purposely make more of a show of it when they are around and many times
they will start digging and scratching about. And sometimes they actually
uncover sea glass. This is quite funny especially if park guests are near. Let's
get some sea glass! Are you saying right there? Well you're right, look
at that, good for you, thank you. He just uncovered some green ones for me, yeah see?
Good job guys, thank you! Hi guys, what are you doing huh? Another reason they come
close to me is because I bring them the treats that I find during my walks on
the trails and on the beach. This park is a nature reserve so many things live
here and so naturally some things also die here. Please understand most of what
I find the Ravens would certainly find on their own, just I happen upon it first
so I get the credit as a friend and provider. Notice my gifts are natural and
they are exactly what the Ravens would find on their own. I never do this with
any other kind of animal or bird! you You gonna take that all by yourself? Huh did you take that all by yourself? You little piggy. Gonna share? But while we're at it let's talk about
what Ravens eat. Now off it goes in my travels I think
Ive seen Ravens eating anything and everything at one time or another. Back
at the park up to this time the adults have brought and stuffed their young
with all kinds of things they find. Offhand I can't think of anything
specific they won't try or carry away or cache at least once. See if you guys like that okay? I can
tell you they prefer raw lamb over cooked chicken because once I put both out at
the same time just to see. They also prefer raw beef over a smash snail. I got
a call from an environmental group asking what Ravens did with hard-boiled
eggs because in one part of the country a group was going to use poison eggs to
kill a large amount of Ravens to save another species. I showed them how Ravens
eat the yolk and leave the white behind for somebody else to eat. They also
prefer what they can catch themselves over just about anything I bring them,
unless it's rabbit. Whatcha got? a grasshopper ? I can tell you
bugs are big and it may be one of the reasons why they fly so wacky sometimes. There have been numerous times I've got a shot of a raven doing a fantastic dive
or tturn and then gotten home and see that they were most likely chasing a bug! Ad then there's the beetles, grubs,
certain types of caterpillars and worm like stuff they dig in root for. Nice move! The Ravens have a rotten
reputation for nest robbing but in all the years I've watched Harold and Maude'
I've never witnessed it, even when I know for sure they knew there's a Finch nest
or a Warbler nest with young in it, Perhaps the Ravens at Crystal Cove are
so well fed on other things that they don't partake? But the crows in the park
do. The crows took this duck family down from 11 to 1, I wonder if the
Ravens sometimes get blamed for the actions of the crows in fact in all the
years I've only had one reliable report of Harold and Maude taking one of the
Cooper's hawks Young. And twice I witnessed another couple, the Moro's,
taking some rock pigeon young. You dining on squab? But in defense both the Cooper's Hawk and
the rock pigeons nested in plain view of the Ravens nest. I think this park
provides the Ravens with far more than they can possibly eat. By now the young birds are truly some of
the great masters of the sky. They soar like sea birds, and they could stay
almost as rigid as a hawk if they need to do so. They also seem to love to fly
with everything they share the sky with. To me, flight is an engineering marvel
and as far as I'm concerned it's a miracle anything, anything at all can fly
let alone a bird who is specifically born to do so naturally and effortlessly. Hi little one you're gonna die for me?
huh? Do a nice little dive? There we go! Just like that!
Oh nice one, almost collide with Dad! Nice one dude! There we go, the leg down
scratching, that's really cool, thank you! Every natural physical characteristic of
a bird says fly. From the strength and lightness of their bones, to their
one-way lungs, to the intricacies of each and every feather! There we go...
And in time, I'm convinced we will find that birds did not come from reptiles or
dinosaurs. They are a one-of-a-kind creature specifically engineered with
the ability to fly in the sky above us, and that they were made to Wow
and entertain us! Lost you in the pelicans. There you go...
Nice one! There we go getting our wings. There we
go, good job! Birds were made to fly, Ravens are some of the best at it! Huey played hard and then he rested. I
find the wild birds doing exactly the same. For me, there's nothing more
exciting than getting up in the morning, knowing I'm going to have a special
lunch with my wife, a dinner out with friends, a party where I get to show
someone how to cook or make something fun, or a day with the Ravens. Now notice
in each and every one of those activities I know I'm going to be
getting involved in a learning and sharing relationship. This is one of
those areas we must leave much of our science behind. Because living
relationships are not scientific. Real-life relationships are
one-of-a-kind, non-repeatable life experiences that come and go every day!
Good, oh yeah that's beautiful. That's good! Now what are you gonna do? It's
gonna be interesting? During this last part of spring the young birds are only
a few weeks old and already they are turning towards almost a teenager like
existence. Not quite so dependent on mom and dad yet still looking for a handout.
Depending on how early they fledged, sometimes we can find them already out
roaming around the neighborhood territories causing trouble with the
neighborhood kids. The parents in these other territories
are not so happy and they do their best to keep the uninvited troublemakers out.
I think every neighborhood has a kid whose mom or dad used to call or
whistle for them to come home. Raven parents do it too and here we see Gus
and Lisa retrieving their kids from Harold and Maude's territory. And just
like teenagers, even when the kids are at home, they are beginning to spend more
time away from mom and dad. Some choose to pair up and roam together, others tend
to spend more time all alone. Nice move! And during this time they're also
learning to cache. And Ravens excel at caching. That is to hide something away
where hopefully no one else can find it. That looks like a good hiding place. Huey
did it all the time and with just about everything and anything he could find
And for years after he left every once. in a while we'd find some trinket in
some odd spot where he had hidden something. The wild Ravens cache for all
sorts of reasons. I love to watch the kids find something, pick it up, hold it
high so everyone else can see it, and maybe, just maybe someone else will want
it, and a new game begins. If not no worries, we'll just take it and cache it! Now seagulls don't cache so even though
a raven will cache something right in full view of a seagull, the gull won't go
and get it! But another raven will. Both the young Ravens and the juveniles
seem to need to get their last bits of energy out before the sun goes down. I
see this at The Cove and everywhere else I go. It reminds me of kids right as mom
and dad are trying to get them to bed, and get them to brush their teeth, and of
course they're off running in every direction except the one mom and dad
want them to go. Did I tell you the runt is usually the last to bed? I found out by watching Huey that he
naturally developed somewhat of a territory issue. He felt he was in charge
of a fairly good-sized area around our property.
Nothing could be in or stay in that loosely designated area that he didn't
want to be there. iI took me no time at all to figure out
that the wild mated couples are even more defined in their version of what
they would call their territory. I began making a record of this in 2004 at the
park and I've kept pretty close records ever since. It's kind of fun to watch
what the different Ravens will do each year and how their territories are
defined. Over the years it's actually changed more than what I would have
expected. More Ravens have come and gone... and there was a period of time I was
pretty amazed as to how crowded the beach scene actually got. Although the
park is larger, I only keep records of the mating couples that nest and raise
their young on the beachfront section of the park. That's just under four miles
long and although the beach goes back hundreds of yards,
the Ravens territory goes back further into the hills. Here's what it looked
like at its peak, and here's what it looked like this year in 2017. The kids pretty much stick within their
parents territory for most of spring but by summer they are now venturing off
into the other couples territories. And they seem to know exactly what they are
doing. Of course the other couples don't like it and they will spend some serious
energy trying to oust the invaders. There are times when it can get quite heated,
and once in a while an adult Raven will attack the young of another brood.
I have never witnessed one hurting another bird but sometimes it sounds
kind of scary. For the most part these territories are well respected by the
other adult Ravens. Wow over the water? You guys going over
the water? Goodness gracious look at that? There are a few times when exceptions
will take place. Maybe once a year but not every year I'll see a whole group of
juveniles as they make their way through the park. In instances like these there
are just too many of them for any of the couples to do anything about it. This was
way back in 2005 and there's about 25 young birds here. A sighting like this is
extremely rare in my area. The number two exception might be during the mating
season. Other ravens will come into the territories. The other mate will run the
intruders out but here again sometimes there's just too many of them and they
might hang around for a while. And now for the number one reason as to why
there might be other Ravens in a guarded couples territory. It's simple, Ravens
gather together to play! The adults will forego territorial boundaries when
there's a really good wind picking up and numerous neighboring adults will
gather to ride the thermals together! Ravens have a one-of-a-kind dive that
all Ravens repeat in every area I've ever been to, and yet I can't recall ever
seen another bird doing the same dive these Ravens do. What they do is fold
their wings, roll over, dive towards the earth and then right themselves again.
All seemingly for fun! I's not limited to sex, the guys do it and then the girls
do it right afterwards. Another fascinating thing about this is it's
strictly the adults that do this. There we go. Beautiful! You gone do one too? Huh you do one too? Dive for me? Who says females don't do it? Okay, let me show you what it looks like
from the birds point of view. If you're prone to motion sickness,
I suggest you close your eyes just about now! I find this dive absolutely
fascinating, I call it the bomb. My buddy Huey and I used to play many
different games. Fact is, play is a big part of every young Ravens day. Young
Ravens will hop and poke and play until food is present, then they will run over
and eat quickly, then immediately run back to doing what they were doing
before they had been interrupted I Nice move. It doesn't matter if it's on the
ground, in the air, or more often and not a combination of both back and forth. And
I can just watch them for hours! By mid-summer the kids start getting
braver and venture out and will also meet and play together daily. Let's spend a
little time up in the hills up behind the park. Whoa whoa did you see that? Whoa! In this area no couple seems to have
this territory all to themselves, so a number of families will sometimes gather
here and they'll all play together. Now we got a chase. Of course if somebody
finds something specific the game just gets more intense. Look at that, he keeps
passing it back and forth from his mouth to his feet. Not sure which way he wants
to carry it. He just keeps passing back and forth like he's teasing
the others siblings. That's what Huey used to do with the
crows except the crows were more relentless. They seemed to just gather
together just to play! Phis is what I really love about Ravens! I love to watch as they find
something and then as if to say I look this is something really special and
then they'll hold it up high for all to see in hopes that somebody else will
take an interest and then hopefully they'll come and try and take it! Or one jumps on top of some pole or
stick and you watch because you know the challenge will most likely be met at
least by one or two of the other siblings. And then there's the tail
pulling. Ravens are masters at pulling tails. Okay get his tail, yeah get his
tail, there we go, get that seagull! And they will pull the tails of anything
in everything including wolves, eagles condors, otters and other animals far
larger and stronger than themselves. They of course learn this right from the
beginning and they practice it on each other, and in my area the seagulls are
the favorite game. These are baby Ravens, about seven weeks
old out of the nest, picking on full-grown adults seagulls! And here is a favorite. You'll see a
young Raven, with food, putting the food down so the seagull can see it, waiting
until the seagull takes a number of steps towards it, and then right before
the seagull gets there he'll snatch it up and take it away! You tease, just like Scotty
with the handkerchief! I noticed Huey developed routines
where he liked to do certain things at specific times of the day. I watched the
wild birds to see if they'd do the same. Sure enough I find the wild birds doing
something very similar, and by mid-summer the young Ravens are in somewhat of a
routine. This made them easy to find for me because no matter what time I arrived
at the park, I'd have a pretty good idea where they most likely might be. Like
Huey, they get up about first light and play, and feed for a while. Then sometime between eight and nine
they'd head for the area in their territory where there was fresh water
available. For Harold mods kids that would be where Harold and Maude first
nested in this beautiful Canyon where there's a water source. For the Moro
couple it's this little pond. Like Huey, they didn't bathe every day but they did
still head to the same fresh water source close to the same time most every
day. As always it was playtime before, during, and after! Ravens go through a moulting and lose their
down feathers. There's been a couple of really hot years where I really worried
there was something wrong with the birds. For a time they can get pretty scraggly
looking. But as we will see in fall when the new feathers grow in they look
richer and fuller than ever! Now is the time the dominant ones become
more feisty. The lesser ones become more subservient and kind of step out of the
ways of the ones that are more aggressive. Both play and food become a
little rougher. Discipline also gets rougher and tougher and both mom and dad
start to lose patience. The parents also begin to purposely not feed the kids and
will sometimes bicker with them and even chase them away from a food source.But
something else happens during this time and it amazes me even though it happens
every year. Huey, our bird would sit for half an hour
to an hour and just talk ... talk talk talk Raven - Hewwoo, ... Person - Hello! Raven - Hewwoo ... Person - Hello ... Raven - Hewwoo ... Person - Hello! Most all the Ravens in the park will
take time to make noise at me for one reason or another. Maude does something
like this ... Harold more like this ... thank you. Gonna talk to me this morning? (Bird makes rattling clicking sound)
There we go, do it again! (Bird repeats it) Thank you! Imagine my surprise when I began to
learn that every single year one of the young birds,
Most often the runt but sometimes more than one of them will sit and yak for
anywhere from five minutes to an hour! Young ravens making numerous unique sounds... Any stories tell me? You do? Examples of ravens from each year making numerous different sounds... He's been doing this for about 45 minutes.
Hi, wanna give me a click? Thank you! More fun sounds... I love it when your "roooolll" like like that. I love this time of year...
I'm totally baffled that a wild bird will just sit there and talk for an hour
or so. As I said before sometimes I'll just set up my camera and let it run.
This is another one of those areas where I learned I have to leave the science
behind because as a scientist, I couldn't sit and enjoy the moment. I'd ruin it
trying to figure out something that I'd never be able to really figure out. It
makes me wonder what else I might be missing in nature because sometimes I'm
so busy trying to figure things out that I'm not taking the time to pay attention
to many of the truly magical things that are going on right around me! So, I've
become comfortable with the fact that there is magic in this world and that
miracles do happen with those willing to look for them.(Well hello...) Life with these birds has
taught me I can't, nor do I need, to know it all! For me that
was a very freeing realization. good Good morning ... How are you? Raven making numerous sounds ... The young Ravens continue through what I
would call their juvenile stage. I call them juveniles for the entire
time they are out of the nest but still under the adults care, protection, and the
adults still choose to feed them. Kind of like a teenager in high school. Their
flying skills continue to improve, especially for the ones who go out and
visit the neighbor kids. But still the neighbor parents aren't too happy about
the friends over after school and they'll run them out of their territory.
Sometimes right away, sometimes they'll let them play for a bit and then they'll
run them out. Tthe length of this juvenile stage varies year to year. I've seen the
adults begin kicking them out as early as two months after they start to fly.
One year they started flying in May and they were booted out in early July. But
I'm usually seeing the kids leave somewhere between August and October.
However there have been exceptions like in 2009 I had a very special group of
six juvenile Ravens that chose to stay in the park much longer than normal. They
drove all the adult couples crazy. Because there was so many of them, the
parents couldn't kick them out. I called them the terrorists! The terrorists were a ragtag group of
some of the silliest birds I had ever seen in the park. These guys and gals
would terrorize every adult couple throughout the entire park.They pretty
much stayed together the whole time so it was six against two and all the
adults were at their mercy. The terrorists generally spent most of their
time in Harold and Maude territory and I think there are at least two but maybe
three there were actually Harold and Maude kids. The other three or four
members I have no idea where they came from. They had very distinct markings
that I wasn't familiar with. Now these goofballs would knowingly make
daily pestering ventures into all the other adults beachfront properties.
They'd meander along just like a gang of teenager with nothing better to do than
just hang out. The poor adults would be beside themselves in fits trying to
figure out how to deal with them! Sometimes the adults would fly at them
as a team with everything they had hoping to dislodge enough of them so
that the entire group would move on. But many times the entire gang would use the
same defense an adult Raven uses against one of its most respected enemies, the
peregrine falcon, and that is to ground itself making the Falcons typical dive
at them and hit them out of the sky, sky attack extremely difficult. So the
terrorists would just sit like a gang on the hill and let the proprietors just
fume. Other times they'd engage in what looked like World War I biplanes in
dogfights but the juveniles were excellent fliers by now and it was still
six to two so the terrorists just wear the adults out. I was somewhat pleasantly
surprised to still see six juveniles still in the park in December. And then I
was laughing about the whole thing when I saw them after New Year's and was
wondering how long the adults were going to take it? The group was even getting
kind of rough with each other. The area the gang had kind of taken over was in
Harold in Maude's territory and Harold and Maude didn't seem to try and visit that
part of the park much anymore. Some of them got very possessive and
selfish with food. They picked on each other and the hierarchy became very
pronounced. Two of the birds had obvious physical
problems. I called one gimpy foot, and the other broken wing. One of the other birds bullied both of
them pretty regularly. Another one had soft rings around the eyes and another
one white patches on the backs of its legs. I called that one no knees. All six
of you still here? By February I was beginning to wonder why are you guys still here?
I even tried chasing them to see what their reaction would be that didn't
scare 'em at all but I noticed they became high on alert. Perhaps they knew
they weren't supposed to be here. Finally, partway into March they were just all of
a sudden gone. No knees? Is that you? Naawww... Is that you? How could that be? Huh? Now as fall comes to an end, and with the exception of 2009 all the
kids are gone and I call the stage they go through now kind of their sub adult
stage. They are no longer reliant on the parents for food, and in fact the parents
have kicked them out of the territory. In April and it took a trip up to Irvine
Park which is about 15 miles north of Crystal Cove. They're known for having a
fairly large population of Ravens all year long. One started following me, and
by the call, and the seeming recognition, and by the markings on the bird, I wondered
if it was one of the terrorists that had moved up here. Is that you No-Knees? (Raven makes calls...) Can I see those knees again? (Ravens in trees making calls...) So now these sub or pre adults have
learned to pretty much take care of themselves. I can see myself in your
eye. Many of them still have some pink in their mouths.
Eventually that pink will go entirely black. This is the stage in their life
when I don't get to spend as much time with them as I'd like to. Other than the
one year when the terrorists were in the park for so long I don't have constant
contact with this group because the adults in Crystal Cove run them all out.
A group of them may attempt to pass through but they are usually attacked
and asked to leave rather quickly. Winter is generally a time of peace and
tranquility for the Ravens at Crystal Cove. All the adults finally have their
entire beachfront property to themselves. The exceptions of course are years like
2009 when you have groups like the terrorists that hung around for so long. Who are you? Must be one of the kids from last year,
there we go, nice one, nice one, like that, good job! But in a normal year the
juveniles have been kicked out and are gathering together in crow like gangs
somewhere outside the park. So the park adults get a few months to live
just the two of them. Now, I get to see Ravens really be Ravens. It
baffles me the loyalty these birds demonstrate towards each other. I would
call it a type of love but it's not so much romantic love as it is devotional
love. These birds work together as a team to keep their territory free of other
Ravens. And to drive out competitive predators like bobcats, coyotes and hawks. In the park they are almost always
together as a pair. One may run off to another area in the park for a short
time but generally if I can see one of the birds the other is sure to be close
by. And during certain times of the day they
sit very close making all kinds of noises and preening one another. To watch
these birds work side by side to raise a family each and every year is an
amazing thing in itself but add to that the fact that three of the families I
work with; Harold and Maude, Gus and Lisa and the Moro couple, all six of these
adults have been loyal to each other since at least 2004 when I started
keeping photographic and video records. Harold and Maude have been together a
little longer, but I know from traveling back and forth between Newport and
Laguna, Gus and Lisa have been together much longer! Lots of little Ravens huh? Off somewhere outside
the park the sub or pre-adult Ravens gather together in gangs until they find
a mate and then go and work to carve out a territory for themselves. Interesting
year, we got newbies. When these newbies or first-time couples come into the
park and try to establish an area they have to get it by the already
well-established couples. As I mentioned earlier I've had as many as seven mating
couples on the four-mile Crystal Cove beachfront. I've also had as few as three. Because my adult birds at the park have
been together so long I don't get to see much in the way of beginning courtship
behavior. What I do see each and every year is what seems to be a testing
period where usually two different couples sometimes more will get together
and sort of fly with each other. Sometimes for about 20 minutes or so
other times for longer. They eventually pair off again and go back into their
own territory. But take Harold and Maude, they may spend some time in the morning
flying with the Moro's. Later I may see them doing the same with Gus and Lisa.
And in the afternoon I may see them way in the back of the hills flying with
another couple back there. What exactly it means I can't say. I do know that in
the end, Harold and Maude, Gus and Lisa and the Moro's have all ended up with
their original partner. Then the territory seemed to be drawn up and for
the rest of the year they are protected and defended by each couple. In fact, in
most cases defending the territory even takes priority over a food source. Nest-building seams to begin right after
the squabbles for mate and territory are settled and over. Both birds participate
bringing different sizes of twigs and sticks from a number of different areas.
I always wonder why, when there are so many trees so close, they tend to go
quite a long distance to other areas to get what they want.
I'll even see them going to another Ravens nest to steal what other couples
have either collected this year or left in last year's nests. Ravens are also
known to line their nests with different kinds of material including fur from
bobcats, coyotes, and many other animals that share the territory. And now mating
season begins. The mating of birds and especially Ravens is pretty boring. Once
in a while I might get some advance notice. The male may bring some sort of
toy, tidbit to eat and she might do a little tail wagging to say she's ready
but then it's just hop on touch the parts under the tail rather quickly and
off we go. It all happens so quickly that out of them many times I've observed it
I've only been able to record it a couple of times. By the time I turn on my
camera and it warms up to readiness, even though that's only a matter of seconds,
they're already done. Now keep in mind we are talking the animal world here not
the human world where there are supposedly a contract between couples, so
it shouldn't be misread as some sort of adultery when there have been a few
times when both I and others in the park have seen mating between birds that
aren't couples. For example I did see Maude get surrounded by a group of birds
and the one that mated with her right on the nest was not Harold.
In fact Harold was off getting food at the time and he came back a short time
later and then drove off all the intruders.
I also witnessed Maude with Gus one time. But for the most part, my time with the
birds would suggest that most mating takes place pretty exclusively between
the pair. During this mating time the eggs get laid by the female and the
whole process starts all over again. Or at least that's pretty much the way it's
been for all the couples in the park until the season of 2017. I lost for the
first time since I started videotaping the birds in 2004 my first adult Raven
that I know of. Unfortunately it happened to be my favorite bird in the park, Maude of
Harold and Maude. She went missing three weeks after the young were hatched. Did
she just up and leave? Was she killed? No clues anywhere so I just don't know.
Harold then spent weeks feeding the young all by himself. Then two things
happened which have never happened before. First, another bird began helping
Harold feed the young, stepmom? She's obviously new so I can't expect
her to tolerate me but she's much louder and a little more skittish than most of
the birds I've worked with. Where did she come from?
hHw did Harold find her? Especially in this time of the year when most couples
are raising young together? Could it be a young adolescent. This brings up many
more questions than answers. The second thing that happened was what I consider
one of the worst nightmares for me. One of Harold's young broke or badly bruised
its wing on the very first day out of the nest. So in essence, the story
continues in a whole new direction. I will certainly be missing old friends
but I will be welcoming in new ones. When I started this project 15 years ago I
thought I could tell a story and then like all stories there would be an end.
The problem with these birds is the story never really ends. And there's
always more to learn from the Raven! I hope you've enjoyed our year with the
Ravens as much as I've enjoyed sharing it You can keep up with our continuing
animal adventures on our YouTube channel theravendiaries all one word and then
get out there and make some of your own! (Goes into Antonio Vivaldi's dramatic violin music from the Four Seasons, Winter...)
Thankyou for posting this Iām SO excited to watch this on weekend šš»šš»šš»šš» What a dream