RAVENS AT THE CASTLE

Yesterday evening at 6:30 PM we attended the Emerson String Quartet concert that was part of the Annual Napa Valley Festival Del Sole.  It was held at the Castello di Amoroso outside of Calistoga.  The castle is a reconstruction of a medieval castle from the mind of Daryl Sattui.  It is quite wonderful in design and appearance. The concert was held in an enclosed courtyard within the castle walls.  The stage was setup against the facade of the chapel wall.  From our seats we could look over the cross on the top of the chapel and see the sky and the towering conifers beyond.  The sky was a robin egg blue with fluffy white clouds.  It was quite lovely.  But HARK- what did I see- RAVEN gliding slowly back and forth in the sky.  WOW- that gave me something to watch during the sad/macabre Bartok music being played.  A linnet (house finch) was sitting on the top of the cross and singing it's heart out during the Bartok recital.  Ha- it didn't like the music either!  I could also hear the raven calls echoing across the valley- sublime.

As night drew in the ravens began to fly into a large conifer that was located directly behind the castle.  They had selected this tree for their night time roost.  I counted 20 ravens coming in for the night.  It was a lovely sight.  Once the ravens were settled, the music improved to a happier Franz Schubert.  All in all it was a lovely visit to the castle and it's raven neighbors.

This morning there was such corvid racket.  A baby crow was sitting in the platform feeder begging for a peanut.  I had put peanuts out first thing this morning.  The baby is of course as big as the parent and there it is begging and squawking like a maniac.  Hilarious.  I put eggs in the platform feeder later in the day as the RAVEN seems to come by in the late afternoon.  The crows will peck and eat the eggs if I put them out in the morning.  So now I have a schedule, the birds have trained me- crows in the morning, ravens in the afteroon.  My life is run by the birds, not, my life is for the birds- a big difference there!