Raven Ranting...

Last week I had the chance to see one of my favorite authors give a talk about his behavioral ecology work with ravens.  Bernd Heinrich has written loads of books about the natural world and someday I will have read them all.  A fellow New Englander, he splits his time between Vermont and Maine so these states often provide the backdrop for his stories.  He's studied and written about everything from bees, to birds, to bugs.  He writes with passion, knowledge, and humility about his experiences with wildlife and the world out of doors, connecting the scientific world to the public.  He speaks the same way.  





A small-framed and rather fit man who must be approaching his 70's, Bernd Heinrich was humorous and insightful.  He used old-fashioned slides from a projector which I found charming.  It was a delight to see the man's passion as he spoke about the years he spent experimenting with the behavior of ravens.  He has trapped, tagged, followed and/or observed hundreds of ravens over the course of his studies.  He has documented roosts acting as information centers where ravens share information on where to find food.  He described his Maine ravens as being shy, wary, sensitive, curious, and intelligent.  My favorite was his repeated references to anecdotal evidence, which happens to be one of the best parts of being a wildlifer.  Sure, hardcore, statistically analyzed data are the juicy meat of any scientific study, but it's recalling the anecdotal evidence that lights up researchers faces and often sparks the initial questions that lead to good research.  He spoke of witnessing raven interactions and behavior that can only be described as play.  Of hearing vocalizations from mated pairs in captivity, sounds that could only be described as affectionate.  It's these stories and experiences that season the juicy data meat for me.  More of his enthralling raven tales can be read in these two great books...get them, read them, love them!

 
As a generally anti-social loner birder, I always learn something about humans when I venture out of my shell into the populous.  What surprised me that night was the number of gray haired, older yuppie-type folks in the audience.  I guess I was expecting a bunch of younger people or something.  I got a kick out of the audience's clearly disgusted response as he described collecting roadkill, and hauling cow, moose and deer carcasses out to raven study sites - and much to my delight, showed many pictures of ravens on carcasses as well.  The best were the photos of squirrel skins that his ravens had turned inside-out to get to the meat because their bills couldn't puncture the hide effectively.  I heard more than one 'ewww' from the back.  Maybe these people were expecting to hear about the spiritual, touchy-feely side of ravens, not the hardcore rigors of science and wildlife biology.  Ha!


After the talk there was a pretty long question-and-answer period where some good questions were asked.  Sadly, a few folks appeared to just want to sound intelligent in their questions.  I mean really people, we came here to hear about his experiences, not to grill him on the natural history facts about a species that you could easily find out yourself.  I mean, if you know what extra-pair copulation is, then you probably know of a source to look it up for ravens, right?!  I found his answers of "I'm not sure" to this type of question highly satisfying.  The really comical part - and here my raven rant begins in earnest - was the line of people that queued up to have him sign stacks and stacks of books afterward.  Geez Louise, this was not a book signing but I'm pretty sure some folks came with the sole purpose of getting their beat-up paperbacks signed by the author.  I'm sure he goes through it all the time but I felt a bit embarrassed by the whole scene.  But not too embarrassed to approach him quickly after the throng had cleared to give him some Burly Bird stickers and thank him for all the hours of endless reading entertainment.  Yes, I'm kicking myself for only having the artwork for the Common Raven Burly Bird and not the actual stickers...

 
Seeing his face light up and smile when he saw the bird stickers goes down on my tiny list of 'Encounters with Famous People'.  Right next to Willie Nelson touching my hand as he signed my ticket stub at Billy Bob's in Texas, which I should add is the largest Honky Tonk in the world.  I guess I should be embarrassed for myself, but a Willie Nelson concert seems more likely a place for that kind of fan behavior.  And besides, the lady ahead of me that night had Willie autograph her bra, so I didn't feel too bad.  Yes Bernd Heinrich, you are on my list with Willie Nelson and probably lucky that nobody wanted their undergarments autographed that night...

Now to design a behavioral ecology study on my resident Glaucomys, secure grant funding, and create/complete a Master's on winter roost behavior of flying squirrels in Maine... 


    

Early Birds and Cat-killed Glaucomys...

Some birds have been showing up in Maine lately that we don't usually see during winter.  It's only mid-February and we've had Turkey Vultures cropping up all over the state, Northern Harriers making appearances, and warblers and woodpeckers (think Red-bellied and Red-headed) that just don't seem normal for these parts this time of year.  This isn't too surprising given the mild winter and continued reports of summer birds being spotted all over Maine (think orioles and warblers), but I'm grateful for the infusion of birds anyway...

I've spent a lot of time looking at the usual suspects this winter.  Loads of ducks, juncos, American Tree Sparrows, and sometimes just empty, birdless landscapes...

This week I was visited by some early birdies at my feeders - a Hermit Thrush showed up...providing what COULD have been a sweet berry-in-the-bill shot...if I had myself a better camera...

  

And then as if the Hermit wasn't enough, it was joined by this adorable little Pine Warbler...that I almost peripherally wrote off as an AMGO (American Goldfinch)...

These photos may be the final straw on needing a new camera.  They could have been great shots, but they're clearly sub par.  Yikes, a new camera is not really in the budget now...perhaps I can convince my sister to loan me her old one (the Florida AVICATION part I and II photos were taken with that one)...


And on a depressing note, there has been a cat lurking around my property lately.  I'm not sure if it belongs to someone or not, but if it does have an owner I really wish they'd keep it inside.  There has been a pissing incident in the garage already, and nobody likes the smell of cat urine - especially if you don't even have a cat.  Needless to say, Scoobs was not impressed.  There have been cat tracks in the snow and now the resident Glaucomys are starting to fall victim to the wanton killing of this potentially feral cat.  This little guy was found in the garage, barely consumed.  Wasted wildlife really chaps me.  I hope it leaves the birds alone, but I doubt it... 

 

But what course of action do I really have?  I could try and attach a note to the cat (if it even has a collar) to inform the owners (if it even has owners) that their cat is destructive?  Somehow I don't think that would work, I'd have to live-trap the thing and that seems like going a bit too far.  And the cat is only around at night, do people really leave their pets out all night?  If it were a strange dog pooping in a person's yard and killing their chickens I bet something would (or could) be done.  Civil suits would ensue and neighbors would become enemies!  Why are cats any different?  

And to leave you on a positive note, I'm really looking forward to seeing one of my favorite authors, Bernd Heinrich, give a talk on ravens tonight at Bowdoin.  I can savor the feel of being on a college campus again for a couple of hours - cradled by the intelligent arms of academia, all while listening to one of the most entertaining writers of the natural and biological world.  Oh, and it's FREE!  While I realize that most people get this excited only over rock concerts, nerds like myself clearly get much more fired up over informational lectures on corvid behaviors!  I'll keep you posted...