ONE YEAR TO THE DAY- RAVEN COMES

It finally happened!  One year to the day exactly!  Chuck saw a raven fly into our little back yard, pick up the egg in the platform feeder and fly off with it.  It was so unexpected and I was so mad that I didn't see it.  As soon as he told me, I ran out and replaced the egg in the platform feeder.  Three days later I saw a big black bird gliding over the roof top as I was working in the frontyard.  However I could not see the bird very clearly.  I ran to the back yard to see if the egg was gone.  Sure enough the egg was gone!!!  Still I had not seen the bird with the egg.  BUT- just now as I was waking from a nap, I SAW IT!  A bird black bird was sitting on the top of the new arbor in the backyard.  It flew over to the platform feeder, adjusted the egg in its beak and took flight!!!  WOW WOW- I saw it with my own eggs, I mean eyes!!!  Soon after a couple of crows came around and were making all kinds of racket- they do not like the ravens in their territory.  After all they are the king of peanuts and of all they observe.  The next step is now to make friends with the raven.  I don't know if this will be possible because of my band of crows that hang out in our court.  The one pair of crows is here every morning for their peanut fix.  As soon as I put out the peanuts the two crows begin to crow and alert their friends that peanuts are out!  They seem to share as long as there are enough to go around.  The baby crows are still with them.  I can tell by the sound of their calls and their very skittish behavior.  A grown bird will approach a peanut straight on and pick it up.  The babies- jump forward and back, forward and back just like the baby ravens used to do up on Mt. Veeder.  It is comical to watch!!
Oh I am so happy- a raven of my own!!!  Now I must go and replace the egg in the feeder.  A friend of mine up on the mountain has a dozen eggs for me.  I must go tomorrow and pick them up as Mr. Raven has found me and all is right with life in the valley. 
It appears that all is all right for a number of people in the valley as we saw seven hot air ballons over the house the other morn.  Such a pretty sight.  Still that couldn't beat the time up on Mt. Veeder when I saw a hot air balloon coming up my driveway.  It was a couple of hotdoggers fooling around in a hot air balloon.  They were about 20 feet off the ground.  When they got to the part of the driveway that swung left they had to really put the gas to the unit or they would have run into the forest which was straight ahead.  What a sight- what a thrill!!  You just never know what one can see in a day.  Ravens, balloons, oh my!!!!