Wildlife Day

Yesterday we decided to go to Bodega Bay after fiddle lessons.  It was a beautiful day at Bodega, clear and warm- quite unusual.  There were big signs up in the town- Tippi Hedron coming in Sept.  Do you remember the Hitchcock movie "The Birds"?  It was filmed in Bodega.  Tippi must be in her 80's by now since that movie came out in the 1960's.  Now that movie made black birds out to be terrible or so I heard.  I never saw the movie because I like BLACK birds.  So much for Hitchcock and Tippi.
We had lunch at the Tides Restaurant and got to watch the sea lions feeding right outside the window.   It was so much fun.  The sea lion would dive and get a fish.  Then up they would come and throw the fish up in the air and catch it to take a bite.  Meanwhile the seagulls who are very canny indeed would dive at the fish just as it was being thrown into the air.  It was quite wonderful to watch this sea theater right before our eyes.

After lunch we went up to Bodega Head.  On the way up we saw a great number of white pelicans.  They are so beautiful to watch when they are in the air.  They look like great flying ships.  It was low tide and they were congregating on the tidal flats.  Birds of a feather truly do flock together.  It was a beautiful day on Bodega Head and there were lots of people up there looking out to sea.  As it turned out there was a pod of whales passing by the head at very close range.  We saw at least 20 whales passing by 2 by 2.  They were going north which is very odd at this time of year.  I have never seen so many whales at close range along the California coast.  Only in Baja California have I seen more whales at one time.  It was a great spectacle of nature and we were very lucky to have the opportunity to see these wonderful creatures.

On the way home we saw a great flock of black birds flying over an open field and some were on the ground.  There were at least 50 birds and they were RAVENS!  It appeared to be a band of juveniles.  Some were doing barrel rolls and others were flying all sorts of interesting ways.  I loved it!  It made the wonderful day complete!

Raven Visits

Since I have seen NO ravens around my new house, I am forced to make raven visits to get my RAVEN fix.  Therefore I drove up to Mt. Veeder equipped with eggs and non-salted peanuts in the shell.  Both are great raven favorites.  I parked on Mt. Veeder Road near the big redwood tree where the ravens frequently hang out.  I got out of the car and started calling- RAVEN- really loud.  Then I heard the raven call back- it made me so HAPPY!  In a few moments they both appeared and sat in the tree watching me.  I put the eggs and peanuts on the ground and sat in the car and watched them come down and get them.  I was very pleased.  The 2 women who bought our house are interested in the birds.  They told us that the ravens come around every afternoon.  We told them about their love for eggs and they were interested in that so I hope they will feed them some eggs!
Yesterday we went to Bodega Bay.  I observed the tree near the restaurant where we like to eat.  The raven pair were there!  So I went over to pay my respects sans eggs however.  How rude of me.  I should be better prepared next time.  If I had never lived on Mt. Veeder I probably would never have paid any attention to the big black birds.  I am so glad that I did live there and learned about ravens.

Raven Rippers

Yesterday we went up to Mt. Veeder to visit friends and ravens.  Our friends live near our old house.  They have a pair of ravens that live around their property.  They also have a compost pile that the ravens like to frequent.  Fred puts out compost and food for the ravens each morning.  The ravens come down every morning and root around to see what is good to eat.  They become quite vociferous if the food does not arrive on time!  The problem arose when they put an Easy UP tent up near the compost pile to protect their wood splitter.  The ravens did not like that!  Apparently it was too close to the compost pile.  They retaliated by shredding the top of the tent.  It appears that they would poke a hole in the tent, then grab the loose piece of fabric and then pull, thus removing a strip of fabric.  Those aggravating birds!    Fred moved the tent further from the compost pile and the ravens haven't bothered it since.  The Raven Rippers got what they wanted!
We went down to the compost pile with pieces of cheese to see if the ravens would come around since I am so raven deprived.  They sat up in the trees and ran through their repertoire of sounds but would not come down.  There were four of us standing below and this probably discouraged them from coming down for the cheese.  I so enjoyed listening to the ravens knocking, croaking and commenting on the humans.  It was a great visit.