Date: Thu, 20 Feb 2003 01:26:44 -0500 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Frank Boyle Subject: Re: Ravens vs. Crows In-Reply-To: <004701c2d87c$568eab10$67bd21a2@JUNE> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit According to University of Vermont Professor of Zoology Bernd Heinrich, ravens are also one of the few species of animals that cooperate collectively in winter to find food sources - they have a complex social order that is seldom seen in other corvids. Unusual numbers of the usually solitary ravens may congregate in winter, in wild places like the north Maine woods, Wyoming and other western mountain states. My own encounters with ravens while backpacking in Vermont prove indeed that while they are more wary of humans than crows, given the opportunity they are highly curious creatures. I have had them follow me for long distances along ridgelines, squawking and chattering all the while as if they were trying to tell me something - more than likely they were laughing at me as I struggled with a ridiculously overloaded pack while they glided effortlessly in and out of the ridges and valleys. *************************** Frank Boyle Laurel, MD ravenfrank@earthlink.net *************************** "Only stupid people have good relationships." -Enid ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================