A Tell Tale Wing

October 7, 2009

I can finally tell the raven pair apart.  Bold raven has a white spot on one of his wings.  He must have gotten into some white paint or some other substance.  This morning the jays arrived before the ravens and were calling for some dry dog food so I went and put some out on the railing- about one NY minute later the ravens arrived and the jays departed with a disgusted squack.  So I put the 2 eggs out and got back into bed where I can see the ravens.  Bold raven came down to the rail per usual and did his jumping around- jump forward and look at the egg and then jump back in case the egg was going to attack- then jump forward pick it up, adjust it in his mouth and then flew off with it.  Shy raven followed with a squack.  They went over to the forest path where Bold raven proceeded to eat almost the whole egg before Shy got any.  They then flew off probably to FS' compost pile.  They love to dig around in that.  They will be back for egg number 2 before long.  All God's creatures are getting ready for winter.  We were taking some logs off the wood pile and found a pile of acorns and shredded redwood bark threads in amongst the logs.  We moved the stash a small distance so that the squirrel? rat? could find it.  The acorns were very big so I don't think a mouse could move those easily.  Fall is definitely here- a little chill in the air in the mornings then the sun comes out.  It usually rains by October 15th each year- we always are glad to see the first rain as it reduces the fire danger.  Raven however does not like rain.