Stone the crows!
May 15th, 2008 by Duncan
I always imagined that was an Aussie saying, the old timers used it enough, but a little research soon shows that it was an old English saying originating from the job of bird scaring. Children were often employed for this work, and were paid the princely sum of about one shilling per week, but I digress. According to my bird book Australia has five native corvids, two crows and three ravens, but until I became a bit more bird savvy, I, along with most of the general public I guess, just called our local three ravens crows. I’m referring of course to the Australian, the Little, and the Forest Ravens. I also imagine that most people only notice them casually, as drab black birds pecking at a road kill, or flying over giving their harsh calls.
There’s a lot more to them than this however, and when I became interested in birds to a greater degree I came to appreciate them. When a paddock has been ploughed, you can often see large numbers of ravens feeding on the turned earth, in company with Sulphur-crested Cockatoos, quite a contrast. The cockies are feeding on onion grass corms, the ravens probably on scarab beetle larvae. They’re intelligent too, once when the children were small we took them up to the snow for the day. At lunch time there was a raven and a Pied Currawong watching and waiting for the chance to grab a morsel, I don’t know if it was an Australian or a Little Raven, but that doesn’t matter. We had a sliced sandwich loaf with us, and tossed them the occasional slice, the raven invariably beat the currawong, but the interesting thing was what it did with it. To make it easier to fly with, it deftly folded each slice over, gripped the double edge, and flew up to a perch to eat, very neat.
Ravens are extremely handsome birds too, whatever some people may think. On a trip to Wilson’s Promontory we stopped at a clearing beside Tidal River where we were joined by two or three ravens which I think may have been Forest Ravens. The glossy purple sheen on their feathers was simply stunning, something neither of us could ever forget. I photographed this Little Raven at Lake Guyatt the other day, it also has a hint of purple in its plumage, not nearly as striking as the Tidal River birds, but it’s still a handsome bird.
Last season we had a pair of Little Ravens nest in one of our trees, they successfully raised two young, and since then they haven’t been far away, I wouldn’t be surprised to see them repeat the event next spring. We’ve got very used to them being around, they’ve become part of our avian family.
I agree with you, Duncan – ravens are handsome and intelligent. They’re among the most entertaining birds to watch anywhere in the world.
Cheers, Mike!
The Raven is my totem. I love this bird, and yes they are extremely smart. This is a great story and photo. Thanks for sharing.
Some times I use Neat Image to get rid of grain and sharpen, and sometimes it is great to remove unwanted chroma noise.
Thanks for visiting,
Troy
Corvidae has a special place in my heart, and none of them more so than our Raven (Corvus corax). The corvids are the most intelligent of birds and ravens top that list. Probably more than anything else I love how they play.
“If men had wings and bore black feathers, few would be clever enough to be crows.” – Henry Ward Beecher
Troy and Clare, looks like we’re all in agreement. Great minds think alike!
I’m with Clare — Ravens are special birds. I am lucky enough to be around them everyday. They never fail to amaze me. Thanks for sharing your stories!
A pleasure Liza Lee.
My hubby and I have an affection for crows and ravens, too. Even as I sit here, I can hear a raven croaking outside my window. I recently wrote an entry in my blog about crows and in it I mention that my greyhound killed one some years ago. She didn’t do a great deal of damage to him, and I buried him. I couldn’t help but admire what a magnificent creature he was as I held him in my hands. The corvid family is really something special.
Certainly popular birds Summer, judging by the comments. I’m surprised your greyhound killed one, my experience of that type of dog is that they don’t take much notice of birds. My second favourite breed, after the whippet!
Alas, here in the eastern US we have few ravens. But we do have a lot of crows, mostly american crows but with the occasional fish crow to spice things up a bit. There was a worrisome decimation in the crow population a few years back from West Nile Virus, but our local community seems to be as robust as ever now.
Good to hear they’ve bounced back Bevson, it’s a big worry when a decline like that takes place. Too much of it going on nowadays.
I love raven’s too. I live over in Perth, W.A. Here the Australian Raven (the largest of any crow/raven bird) have been classed as pest to agriculture because they kill livestock sometimes with their smaret ways, but over here we see them everywhere, and I absolutely love them, but some of my friends think not. They are absolute buggers when it comes to rubbish, as they open bins and take everything out just to find a little bit of food. But my love for raven’s started when I once saw one on the top of a fire hose reel box with a closed, half-filled bottle of ice tea. It managed to grasp the base of the bottle and with it’s beak, open the top and then drank out of it with it’s beak. Pretty clever, huh? I also love their feather’s glossy finish even when they live in the wild.