Thursday, February 15, 2018

FOOD FIGHTS

Whenever we go over to the ocean for the day I always take some peanuts for the ravens.  We park our old van up on the Bodega Head and look for the raven pair.  They live in a grove of trees some distance from the parking lot.  They invariably come around flying along the edge of the cliff in front of the van.  So I get my peanuts at the ready and throw some out for the ravens.  The trouble is- the seagulls really like peanuts too!  The crafty seagulls swoop in and sometimes- read most of the time- get the peanuts before the ravens have time to consider their strategy.  I have used various ploys in the past to get the peanuts to the ravens BUT this time we had another problem.
Starlings!!  This is the first time I have seen starlings around Bodega Bay.  They are proliferating all over California and now have made it all the way across the country to the Pacific shore.  Why someone brought them over here from Europe I do not know.  They are not very pretty, are very loud, eat grapes, and generally are obnoxious.  When I was young I used to spend the summers with my grandmother in York, PA.  My grandmother loved birds in general but despised starlings.  At night they would congregate and sit on the electric wires above the side walk and make noise and poop on the sidewalk. She would go outside with a pot and spoon and bang on it to scare them away.  It did not work.  She was afraid they would steal the babies from the robin nest in the cherry tree in our backyard.
So here I was in Bodega Bay trying to give treats to the raven pair and what do have for company- a bunch of starlings. (I think a bunch of starlings is called a mummeration) They are faster than seagulls and ravens.  I throw out a peanut and they are there to grab it.  They are very FAST.  They are survivors. So what can you do??  Starlings just want to eat. So the solution next time is to walk up to the raven hangout in the trees and give them treats before the starlings and seagulls find out what is up!!!
So here at home in Napa yesterday there was a real food fight.  I had put out a hunk of cooked chicken for the ravens and some peanuts.  I heard a racket outside so I went to see what was going on.  Two ravens were on the ground near the food with a buzzard circling around overhead.  The ravens were squawking and making all kinds of noise but the buzzard prevailed.  He swooped down and picked up the chicken and took flight.   What I learned from this is that I have to limited the size of the pieces of meat that I put out for the ravens.  A bigger piece attracts the turkey vultures (buzzards) and makes it worth their while to fly down and pick it up.  Poor ravens- they only had peanuts for lunch yesterday.
A note on the effects of the Napa firestorm of last October 2017.  Behind my former home on Mt. Veeder there was a 2000 year old sequoia tree.  From my window I could often see raven sitting on the top of this tree.  From there he had a panoramic view of the hills and Mt. Veeder Road.  A friend had gone up to check on the tree and had taken a picture.  I could not believe it.  It was completely black from the fire.  It had survived for 2000 years.  It survived the logging of the redwoods that took place after the earthquake in San Francisco at the turn of the last century.  It's unusual shape had deemed it not worthy for lumber to rebuild San Francisco and now it looked doomed.  I am so sad.  We will have to wait to see if the cambium layers are still alive under the blackened bark.  We will look for sprouts of green this Spring- hope upon hope that it is still alive.

No comments:

Post a Comment