HAPPY RAVEN NEW YEAR!!!

2012 is lining up to be a good one for ravens.  How do I know???  This morning while at church service, I looked out the big glass window and what did I see???  A nice big raven sitting on top of a big wooden cross in the church garden.  He had a big treat of some kind that he was working at eating.  So I spent most of the service watching the raven until he flew away.  I say time well spent on January 1st.  This afternoon we walked the open space.  I was hoping to see the ravens that live near the creek but had no luck.  So I came home to rake leaves in the backyard.  While I was at this never ending task- hark what did I hear but a raven talking at me from overhead.  He was in the redwood tree.  The tree is so thick and the foliage so dark that I could not locate him.  So I came inside so he could come down and collect an egg from the platform feeder.  Ah what a sight- a raven picking up a chicken egg and flying off with it.  So what a happy raven New Year for me!!
We found a one bedroom/one bath cottage for sale on Mt. Veeder Rd. not far from our former home and really close to our good friends who like ravens and cats and chickens too.  I emailed our realtor to let her know we wanted to look at it.  Unfortunately she is in Hawaii until January 9th.  We will wait for her return and then go take a look.  What a crazy idea this is!  But I can think of all sorts of positives too.  Hey who says you can't have a country place 8 miles up the road from your suburban home???  AND- I know there are resident ravens that would be happy to meet me!!  The home was sold at the top of the market in 2007 and has gone into foreclosure- it is now a short sale.  The realtor told me short sales are a crazy proposition and a wild ride but--- it could be fun!  Anyway- it is worth a look around and a visit up to Mt. Veeder.

A Dearth of Ravens and a NEW plan

The lack of raven song is getting to me.  I haven't heard a raven in the neighborhood for several weeks.  The ravens do not like the murder of crows that hang around here.  I do have one crow buddy.  For some reason he recognizes me and when I go outside he will call at me.  I respond with non salted peanuts in the shell.  If he is quick he can beat the blue jays to the peanuts.  The crow calls his buddies before he will approach the nuts.  Crows are really very careful and I suppose they have to be as many people do not like them, but I like them.  The saucy birds.
So lack of ravens has caused me to have a NEW PLAN for raven company.  A friend has a home up in the Mayacamas Mountains where I used to live.  He has said that I can park a trailer up there and have a hidey hole for raven encounters.  There already is a pair of beautiful ravens around his property.  I often see them when I am visiting.  So this plan would allow me some mountain time and some raven time, such a deal!  Now all I have to do is find a trailer that we can manuever down his driveway.  The last time I was up there with a long vehicle it was a real interesting experience.  It was a limo to take a bunch of us to an event in the valley.  The driver got it sideways on the driveway and it took all his skill to get it out of there!  So I am thinking that the fellow that moved us off of Mt. Veeder would be the person to get to move the trailer once I find one.  We could not believe his skill with a BIG moving van on our steep, limited turnaround driveway.
So now I am scanning the FOR SALE section of the Napa paper for a smallish trailer that I can afford.  This could be the start of a whole new adventure in ravens.

The Stealth Ravens are at it again

I went out this morning to put peanuts in the platform feeder and the two raw chicken eggs were missing.  The stealth ravens got them!  It is very hard to see this pair as there is no convenient branch for them to sit on just outside my window like there was on Mt. Veeder.  I guess I will have to put up something like an arbor for them to perch on so that we can make each others acquaintance.  I have not heard any raven sounds around here since I got back from London.  Due to this dearth of lovely raven sounds, I had to go up to Mt. Veeder to hear their calls.  This week while up there to help a friend with his wood supply, we heard the scream of the piliated woodpecker.  That bad boy can certainly make very weird and LOUD noise.  Our help with the wood these days consists of pushing the wench button while our friend does all the chain saw work off the side of the road and then attaches the logs to the chain and wench. We can't fool around with wood like we used to, sorry to say, but we are very good with the button!!
On a lighter and more fun note- Halloween required a very raven outfit.  I got the most fabulous raven witch hat from a catalog.  It was very fancy, with black roses, black tule vail, black ribbons, swaths of black netting down the back, black feathers and a black raven sitting on the brim.  What raven maven could resist such a creation.  I added a pink rose to the hat brim as my garment to go over my black dress was a fun print of pink and black witches, sorcerers and black birds on a white background.  It was totally fun to wear that outfit!  It was a totally Raven Halloween for me!

Ravens at Home in the Mt. Veeder range

Upon returning from England I needed a Mt. Veeder Raven fix.  So up I went to visit my friends up on the mountain.  At my cat sitter's home the raven pair were in rare form.  They were squawking, flying around, diving and making lots of racket.  Loved every minute of it!  Then I traveled further up the road to visit my former next door neighbors.  Bold and Shy were flying around putting on a display while we sat on the deck drinking good Napa Valley wine.  Then another pair of ravens joined in the fray and all four birds were flying and making lots of racket.  A great number of ravens suddenly appeared as darkness began to fall on the mountain.  They appeared to be heading for the Raven Tree on our former property.  It is a very large coast redwood tree, very tall with thick foliage.  Once the ravens fly into the tree and quiet down for the night, one cannot tell there is a bird anywhere around the area.  There is much flying to and fro as they select the tree and get settled for the night.  It is quite a sight as birds fly into the area from all directions.  I don't think that Bold and Shy join this pack of juvenile birds for the night but I could be wrong.  They may want to share in the reconnaissance information that the juveniles have collected during their daily flights around the area.  It is thought that the birds congregate at night for protection and to share information about food locations.  I wish I could speak RAVEN and find out!
We went to a Halloween party on Friday night and I wore a spectacular Raven Witch Hat.  Oh it was great with black roses, one pink rose, lots of netting, veil, black feather and of course a fake raven!  I am thinking of wearing it everywhere= and why not?

What are the RAVENS doing at the Tower of London?

Just got back from London town.  It seems everyone in town is 30 years old or less.  We kept looking for people of a certain age, like ours, but no luck.  Well the real reason to go to London was to visit the RAVENS at the Tower of London.  So off we went.  We got to the Tower on a Friday morning at 9 AM, first in line we were.  So off to the Jewel House to ogle the crown jewels.  With that task completed- it was RAVENS I wanted to see.  There were several ravens sitting on park benches and on the grass.  I sat on one of the benches and had a talk with Mr. Raven.  I was close enough to see how his wing was clipped.  All of the feathers of one section of the wing, like a whole row, had been clipped down to the nub- ouch!!  I saw one of the clipped ravens try to fly- it could only flutter.  This made me very sad.  There were crows around the grounds and they were flying here and there.  I felt sorry for the ravens.  The Tower ravens have a much lower toned croak than Bold and Shy of Mt. Veeder.  It was interesting to listen to them.
It was very hot at the Tower.  London was having a HEAT wave.  I went to find a shady spot to rest.  There was a big cage located where I sat.  It contained 4 young ravens.  They were very hot and were panting. There was a small plastic pool of water in the cage.  They were getting a drink and splashing about and trying to stay out of the sun.
As I was cooling my heels, a fully dressed Beefeater came to stand near me.  He was looking for a cool place to rest also.  Their Beefeater uniforms are very beautiful but not suited to a heat wave.  I asked him about the ravens in the cage.  He told me that the raven chicks come from aviaries in Cornwall and Scotland to be raised at the Tower.  He said the breeding program at the Tower was not going very well and so they import the raven chicks.  They used to have a Raven Breeder at the Tower who was very successful.  Unfortunately he was killed by a dog that was brought into the Tower grounds.  The dog was brought to the Tower to search the grounds before a visit by the Queen.  How unfortunate was that, sort of goes along with other events at the Tower.  The Beefeater told me that they have 3 Raven Masters at the Tower.  I said that I would like that job.  He said he jolly would NOT like that job as the masters get bit.  Well- it is no wonder they get bit if they are the ones doing the wing clipping!  So I saw the ravens but it was not necessarily a wonderful experience.
Next we went out to Hampton Court Palace to see the digs of Henry VIII.  Walking the old hallways, one could almost hear the horses coming in the gate and footsteps on the cobble stones.  Of course my RAVEN detector was on and working.  I saw a lovely pair of ravens being harrassed by a murder of crows.  Really those crows are so pesky!  There is plenty of garden for all the birds at Hampton Court, why bother the ravens?  It is a beautiful garden and I saw many different birds poking around in the shrubs.  I would have liked to spend more time in the gardens but we were very tired and retreated to our hotel room in London.
Soon enough we left London and went to Kent to spend a few days with an old friend from Napa High School. She has lived in England all of her adult life.  As usual I was looking for Ravens along the one lane country roads.  I never saw a raven but did see many black and white magpies.  So all was not lost in Kent, a most beautiful, green and lovely place.
When we arrived home from England at 1 AM in the morning- what did I see?  A Welcome Home sign at the door AND a new doormat with a CROW on it!!  Wonderful!  What a nice surprise from my very good buddy, Dick.  I am going to take my black sharpie and modify that beak and it will soon be a RAVEN!

Where is the Stealth Raven?

The Stealth Raven is around and about!  I have been putting out 2 raw chicken eggs into the platform feeder each day if the previous 2 eggs have disappeared.  Some days it is obvious that the crows have had an egg snack.  They peck at the eggs and leave egg shells all around the feeder.  Other days the eggs have clean disappeared ala the Stealth Raven.  To see the Stealth Raven in action I have to be looking out the window at the moment when the raven flies in to pick up an egg.  This is a problem.  Up on Mt. Veeder the house had floor to ceiling windows everywhere so it was easy to monitor the action in the great outdoors.  Here the windows are of normal size and configuration- how I miss those big windows on the world.  So now I have to come up with a new plan for sighting the Stealth Raven.  This could take considerable thought.  How about a motion activated alarm that would ring on my Kindle? on an ipod? on my watch? Oh the possibilities are endless.

Last week we went out to Bodega Head at Bodega Bay- you know- the sight of the Alfred Hitchcock movie "The Birds".  I never saw the movie because it gave black birds such a bad name for YEARS.  I would not support such a movie.  Anyway I went out there to enjoy the view of the Pacific Ocean and to visit the resident raven pair.  I took along some bread and crackers.  It was difficult to feed these ravens because the darn seagulls are faster at the draw and get the food first.  So I would wait for the ravens to fly by the open back end of my van and then I would throw out the food.  I saw one raven do a 180 degree turn in midair to grab the food I had thrown out.  Wow that was quite the maneuver!

We are going to the Scottish Games this weekend at the Pleasanton Fair Grounds.  There is a man there who walks around with a raven puppet/doll on his head.  This raven is dressed up like a Scottish King- with crown, kilt, the whole kit.  It is so neat.  I want one.  I am going to look for this man and take his picture for future reference.  This could be my next project.  I just finished my Raven Tote Bag.  It turned out quite well if I do say so myself.  When my daughter comes up to visit I am going to have her take a picture and show me how to add it to this blog.  I have to get with the 21st century I suppose.  I am hoping to hear a raven call today- how I love that sound!

RAVEN SONG

This morning I awoke to the sound of raven song.  I got up and looked outside.  A raven was sitting on top of the tallest tree around here- a very tall redwood tree.  He was calling for all he was worth.  Then I heard the sound of a juvenile raven making alot of racket.  Oh it was so wonderful to hear the raven fuss, oh I meant song!  I immediately went outside and put 2 eggs in the platform feeder.  When I got back inside I looked out the window- what??? one the eggs was already gone.  A raven must have been watching for me.  That egg disappeared in the time it took me to come inside, close the door and look out the window.  I say I have a stealth raven in residence.  I like the idea of a stealth raven.  I then watched the platform feeder periodically to see if the other egg would disappear but alas my crow bunch arrived and made short order of the egg.  It is difficult here with both ravens and crows in residence.  I like them both but they do not like each other.  Raven does not come around if there is a murder of crows in residence.  I don't blame raven.  The crows are a feisty bunch.  Last night there was such a bunch of crows in the tray feeder that they were jumping up and down to get a spot.  A one point I got worried.  It looked like the crows were tossing something black around in the air.  Was it a dead crow- yikes.  No it was just a battle for position power. 

Each morning I put black oil sunflower seeds in the platform feeder tray for the song birds.  Crow food must be in limited supply right now because the crows have been camping out in the tray and eating all the seeds.  Usually these are left for the small song birds.  So I then I fill up the tray again.  The 25 lb bags of seed have gone from $7.98 to $17.98!! It must be the freight charge to get them to the store or bad weather in the midwest or something.  So this year when the volunteer sunflower plants have come up from spilled seed, I watered them and let them grow.  I now have a healthy patch of big, bright sunny sunflowers.  I never have grown them before and I like them.  So all is well today in the Napa Valley.