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two for joy
On the way from class to the student center just now, I heard a strange noise.
It was sort of unclassifiable - it sounded to me like a plastic bottle rolling or something, but a cursory examination of the surrounding grounds revealed no visible source. I was about to just let it go, since I'm excruciatingly tired and it probably didn't mean anything... when it came again, louder, and closer. Looking around still offered no explanation. I was next to a tree, though...
I looked up and HUGE BIRD IN THE TREE
I couldn't identify it for a second, it wasn't making a recognizable call and the leaves broke my view of it. But as I backed to one side for a better look, the black feathers and the beak gave it away right before it let out a loud, croaking caw.
HOMG A RAVEN INNA TREE
I must have stood there for like five minutes in the sidewalk, just gaping and grinning at ZOMG RAVEN. We don't get ravens in this area that often, so this was a very memorable event. I could hear another one cawing, too, but couldn't locate the sound and anyway this one was like seriously right above my head. I would have walked straight under a raven without even knowing it if it hadn't called.
A student standing in the middle of the sidewalk and grinning foolishly at a tree will attract attention, and one girl who had figured out what I was staring at and was equally thrilled stopped by to inform me that the second raven was on the clock tower. We gleed at each other for a few seconds, the tree raven flew off towards the tower, and I ran over there to see.
Sure enough, two big, lovely ravens just perched at one face of the clock tower, nary a care. One of them was holding some plant matter in its beak, which it then put down out of my sight. As I watched, they clasped at each other's beaks and generally behaved affectionately towards each other. (Ravens are social birds, right? I thought. They must be bonding.)
I think they're nesting on the clock tower. Those of you who know me and my flailing adoration of corvids can probably guess how incoherently happy this makes me. I really hope they're here when I get back.
s,djghkdsfh RAVENS!!!!11
It was sort of unclassifiable - it sounded to me like a plastic bottle rolling or something, but a cursory examination of the surrounding grounds revealed no visible source. I was about to just let it go, since I'm excruciatingly tired and it probably didn't mean anything... when it came again, louder, and closer. Looking around still offered no explanation. I was next to a tree, though...
I looked up and HUGE BIRD IN THE TREE
I couldn't identify it for a second, it wasn't making a recognizable call and the leaves broke my view of it. But as I backed to one side for a better look, the black feathers and the beak gave it away right before it let out a loud, croaking caw.
HOMG A RAVEN INNA TREE
I must have stood there for like five minutes in the sidewalk, just gaping and grinning at ZOMG RAVEN. We don't get ravens in this area that often, so this was a very memorable event. I could hear another one cawing, too, but couldn't locate the sound and anyway this one was like seriously right above my head. I would have walked straight under a raven without even knowing it if it hadn't called.
A student standing in the middle of the sidewalk and grinning foolishly at a tree will attract attention, and one girl who had figured out what I was staring at and was equally thrilled stopped by to inform me that the second raven was on the clock tower. We gleed at each other for a few seconds, the tree raven flew off towards the tower, and I ran over there to see.
Sure enough, two big, lovely ravens just perched at one face of the clock tower, nary a care. One of them was holding some plant matter in its beak, which it then put down out of my sight. As I watched, they clasped at each other's beaks and generally behaved affectionately towards each other. (Ravens are social birds, right? I thought. They must be bonding.)
I think they're nesting on the clock tower. Those of you who know me and my flailing adoration of corvids can probably guess how incoherently happy this makes me. I really hope they're here when I get back.
s,djghkdsfh RAVENS!!!!11
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Oh man, and and. After I posted this, I went back, and the one raven was making that kind of noise again - if I had to describe it, it'd be as sort of a hoarse coo - repetitively while lifting and lowering his head. Krr krr, head down, raise head, krr krr, head down, raise head, etc. Eventually the other flew to him from where she was on the roof of the student center (the clock tower is attached), and I saw her backlit with her wings in full spread and oh. Took my breath away.
loev ravens ;_;
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I think the first time I saw a raven for reals (and cared that it was in fact a raven; I was into birdwatching several years ago) was at a rest stop somewhere in Arizona. Maybe it was California? I sort of can't remember! We were in the mountains and there was snow and it was cold. Maybe it was in California; that's where I first saw Steller's jays.
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Ravens are so neat. I saw one in the parking lot at Lake Powell flapping against a breeze - didn't seem to be trying to get anywhere, it was offering just enough resistance to the breeze that it kind of hovered. I think it was playing.
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(Haha, I love that I know someone who knows to call them raptors. People give me funny looks when I do. :( )