Last night there was a terrific racket on the deck. I thought it was a cat fight on the deck- but whose cats? In fact it was Andy the fat cat down at the glass door screeching and making the most terrible noises. What the heck? I looked out the window and what did I see but a huge red fox. The fox was after a mouse in the verdant new growth at the base of a redwood tree. I have often seen the shadow of a fox at dusk come looking on the deck for any morsels the ravens might not have eaten that day. The shadows were small and I expect they were the native gray fox. We often see the small gray foxes jump off the road into the ditch when driving the mountain roads at night. This red fox however was three sizes bigger than Andy the fat cat. It is a good thing that Andy was protected by the glass door. So because of the ravens I get to see foxes on the deck! You will have to excuse my braggadocio about my raven pair!
Yesterday I put out some chicken fat, 2 mice and dry dog food for the ravens. I wanted to see the raven's food preference. Bold came down and grabbed the chicken fat, as much as he could stuff in his beak. It was hanging out of his beak in all directions when he took off flying. Bold came back. This time he stacked the two mice in his beak and some more chicken fat and took off. I wonder if Bold shares? Does he eat it all at once or hide some? Bold left the dog kibbles until later in the day- hoping for another mouse perhaps?
Since the time change Bold and I don't have our greeting and feeding down to a precise time slot. I find that I want to sleep in more since the time change for some reason- of course the rainy foggy days may have something to do with it! Bold isn't much for showing up on rainy days either- he doesn't like rain! I can tell- he looks all discombobulated on a rainy morning. So now when I put the food out whenever I get up- I first listen for ravens sounds- if I hear a click or a clack I call out RAVEN really loud and here Bold comes. If I don't hear the ravens, I call out RAVEN and FOOD really loud and Bold appears in a short time. The raven must have good hearing or is close by.
It is another raven day. There is a weak sun coming out. I must go out and call to the ravens and start the day off right!
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We seem to be living parallel lives. One of hte cats let out a yowl as if it were being disemboweled the other night and the only guess was that there was a raccoon or something else out on the deck. One of the cats disappeared under my bed for an hour, the other sat quietly on my windowsill but wouldn't venture out on the roof, the typical nighttime playground, and kept flicking her eyes up to the roof so that I kept wondering if there was something up there. I believe she was just yanking my chain like a cat will do.
ReplyDeleteBack to ravens. I've been painting and as I painted the inside of a windowsill the other day a raven kept flying back and forth. I wondered if it was wondering what I was doing. I said hello.
Love how you call your birds.
I bet the raven was just nosy- they are very nosy indeed and like to see what the weirdo humans are doing!
ReplyDeleteIt's a (rare) rainy day here in Owyhee and I'm catching up on your blog, reading it as if it were a book! Can't wait to see how the Raven story goes!
ReplyDelete- The Equestrian Vagabond