Heh, when I was camping one year at the Grand Canyon, one of my friends left his main pack in his tent while we went off to take a dip in the falls.


We came back to find a couple of ravens eating what was left of his food.

They had unzipped the tent door, unzipped his pack, and pulled out almost all of his food. While they managed zippers just fine, they apparently weren't clever enough to open a Ziploc baggie, instead ripping it to shreds inside the tent to get at the contents.

It was a mess like I haven't seen in a while, and they made off with a weekend's worth of food, less a can of tuna and a package of ramen.


I know it was the ravens and not the Indian kids because the kids leave footprints. Nothing but bird feet all around, and nothing of value missing like the 2way radios or wallet with cash.

I have one of those where i go jogging, and it just sits there in the tree doing that stupid noise, it is so annoying.

I'm in Oz and we have a Great Raven. Large shiny black, almost blue, feathers and some have Blue eyes, some have yellow and other varieties have black eyes.

The Cooloola Coast region's original people speak about the blue-eye as being a Protector and messenger of the Creator, while the yellow-eyes where the Trickster. I noted the growing numbers of blue-eyes in urban areas and less of the yellow-eyes now.

I moved to a farm half an hour out of town to where a family of blue eyes lived. I soon learned they were not the villianous birds we've been led to believe they are. In fact, I've seen them chased out of trees by other birds. Being on the spiritual minded side of things, I placed a light barrier around the fence to keep snakes away.. it worked well too if you topped it up regularly.. but, the Ravens also noticed it and started to show a little interest in me.

So I offered them food at a safe distance which I 'lighted' and they happily ate, then over time they allowed me closer to their family. Their leader was an old Granma with many missing feathers, who sat topmost in the tree and was first to call danger when large Eagles were around.

One morning I woke up to the loudest cawing at my windows. I went outside to see on the next hill over a very large bulldozer being started up to be taken off its transporter. Not only had the Ravens woken me early, but they had also called hundreds of others to the area and were circling a huge old tree as if to protect it from the machine. Once they saw the machine was not going to knock down the ancient tree, the family groups split off and returned home.

I listened to their speech and it seemed they had three forms of language used at different times. One day I was visited by a woman who sought to have me partnered with her, and was a little angry with my soft refusal, so she went for a fast walk. As soon as she left one of the blue-eyes flew onto the fence post in front of me, leaned forward stretching its neck out and began softly talking in low whispery gutterals marked with various clicking noises.

At that point I was wanting some clarity on my personal direction and started to listen more to the Raven and relaxed myself into a state similar to meditation. I thought how I would love to understand what the Raven was saying to me, then, I 'heard' a very soft feminine voice tell me, "Do not go with this one, she is not for you." I took that as a direct confirmation of my choice and was happy with that. Interestingly, the Raven stopped talking once I "got it", and when the woman returned it 'yelled' at her. lol, but true.

Lastly, once the family flew off somewhere for three days and four yellow-eyes moved into the tallest tree. They were noisy and offensive to other birds of the area. The moment one of the family was visible over a distant ridge the yellow-eyes retreated quickly.

I know this is probably legitimate to the poor woman but I find this pretty amusing. I would like to know what the raven is thinking. Maybe she comitted an offense she didnt' realize.

They are pretty smart birds.

I mean no disrespect, really - but if that woman was convinced a bird was stalking her... shouldn't she be the one to be locked up?

It's a very interesting story.
I love stories about birds, especially magpies and ravens (and sparrows - whoever has taken their time to observe them probably knows what I mean ;-).
I remember a story about a magpie in Japan who stole an old woman's dentures - and then, a week later, brought them back to the woman's house!

Gotta love them.










[edit on 7-10-2009 by Vanitas]

Originally posted by nixie_nox
They are pretty smart birds.

Too right, i always get the impression, they seem smart birds. There noise is so annoying, while i am jogging, this raven sits right above me in this tree, churping.

I love messing with them. Well, actually I like terrorizing them for the fun of it. They get so stirred up and defensive, unlike any other bird I mess with.

They have the last laugh though. There's nothing I can do about them screeching at sunrise outside my bedroom window!

Once a saw a raven snatch a sparrow out of mid air for a snack.

We have tons of Ravens where I live, and near the more populated centers you'll find Ravens the size of German Shepherds from all the garbage they eat (like half-eaten Big Macs, thrown away Taco Bell).

The funniest Raven moment I have ever witnessed were Ravens that lived on a roof of a Minute Market that would swoop down when someone threw a cigarette on the ground and pick it up in their beaks and smoke the still smoldering butts.

For the most part Ravens are scavengers, and thus very pacifistic. They'll even give up their territory to more aggressive Blackbirds rather than put a fight.

However, I've seen Ravens develop a personal grudge against someone. There was one Raven that lived in a tree near the bike path. Every day the same guy would walk by and after the guy threw a rock at the Raven the Raven would throw stuff back at him for the next couple of days, although it would leave everyone else alone. One day the guy had a bb-gun pistol and shot the Raven. After that, the Raven would swoop down and repeatedly buffet the guy's head with it's wings. After that, the guy stopped walking along that stretch of the bike path and the Raven went back to it's quiet existence.

If the woman in the article had a Raven menacing her, she must have done something to peave it off to get it to hold a grudge like that.

Originally posted by masqua

4) Ravens will talk back to you if you talk to them. Often, they will mimic your voice. I made a point of talking to ravens whenever they were resting nearby and struck up many a conversation.

Is that a fact?
Years ago, one afternoon when I was sitting in the Schönbrunn park, a raven approached me - there is no other way to describe it - and I could have sworn s/he was addressing me personally.
(And I did talk back - just don't know how much sense I made in the eyes of the bird...)

Thanks for telling.
I'll try and talk to some the next time I see them (pretty much every day).








[edit on 7-10-2009 by Vanitas]

Originally posted by masqua
[
I'll stop here before people start thinking I'm insane (I might well be, after all, I talk to the birds )

Ha, you should have seen the last sentence of my previous message - the one that I deleted before posting... Let's just say it involved my neighbours and speculative assessments of my mental health.

Seriously, now I am truly intrigued.
And if there are any developments worth reporting here, I'll do so. ;-)

Originally posted by andy1033

and it just sits there in the tree doing that stupid noise, it is so annoying.

That noise is called speaking.
The bird is speaking, in its own language.

I wonder what their opinion is of our "noises"...?










[edit on 7-10-2009 by Vanitas]

My Budgie mimics the calls of all of the birds that fly near our balcony. He will speak Starling to the Starlings, Scrubjay to the Scrubjays, and Woodpecker to the Woodpeckers. He'll actually try to hold conversations with them, although the Robins seem to be the ones most interested in holding long conversations where their call changes throughout the conversation. Most of the other birds sound like pongs in reply to a ping, just repeated over and over.

I'll have to see if I can lure a Raven near the balcony long enough for my Budgie to start speaking to him. I might not speak Raven myself, but I know my Budgie can and he can interpret for me. The difficult part is getting my Budgie to speak English. He does, but only when he feels like it.

Originally posted by fraterormus

The difficult part is getting my Budgie to speak English. He does, but only when he feels like it.

And may I ask, how does he get along with sparrows, conversation-wise?









[edit on 7-10-2009 by Vanitas]

when i was a kid i was at the park eating a burger and fries with my pa. a raven swooped down and snatched up my bag of fires and flew off.

a few years back i was parked up against a neighborhood park waiting for a friend to come out and get into my car. the back window was partially open and my dog had her head sticking out. a raven flew up and started squawking at my dog intentionally aggravating her. after a few minutes i decided to open the door and let her out, it only seemed fair. well the raven flew into a tree and kept squawking. then it started playing a game with my dog. squawking from the tree to get her attention, swooping down over her head to land on the ground. my dog would run at it and it would then fly back over her head into the tree. the game lasted about 10 minutes. it was pretty cool to watch.

bottom line, ravens rock. and apparently they are smarter than your average cop.