Date: Thu, 20 Feb 2003 09:37:08 -0500 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Scott Crabtree Subject: Re: Ravens vs. Crows MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Bernd Heinrich has written a number of superb books on Ravens - "Ravens in Winter," and another, I believe entitled "The Mind of the Raven." Those, along with "One Man's Owl," and "A Year in the Maine Woods" are excellent reads. At the risk of taking this thread too far off MD, I had a fair amount of experience with the curiosity and boldness of ravens when I lived in the Central Aleutians - on the island of Adak. I was hiking across the tundra one day, and saw a distant Raven, flying across my intended path. It diverted to fly over me, turned over to fly upside-down, croaked a couple of times, righted itself, and returned to it original course. A corvid "Howdy," I guess. They would routinely steal salmon from the Bald Eagles, and when they gathered up in flocks, I would see them sitting on telephone wires and poles. Many would be swinging upside-down from the wires, croaking and "gonging," like kids on a jungle-gym. Displays? Showing off their "fitness" as possible mates? Who knows! Scott Crabtree Chester, MD crabtree@myshorelink.com ----- Original Message ----- From: Frank Boyle To: Sent: Thursday, February 20, 2003 1:26 AM Subject: Re: [MDOSPREY] Ravens vs. Crows > 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 > ======================================================================= > > ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================