Subject: Re: ravens
Date: Jan 3 14:37:14 1995
From: Christopher Hill - cehill at u.washington.edu


Since ravens may fly tens of miles to and from food sources or roosts,
and perhaps much farther when they are searching for new food sources, I
think that high flights, or apparently long flights (groups seen traveling
for over a mile in a straight line by someone on the ground) are not
necessarily indicative of any kind of migration. Also, since ravens
often roost communally and feed communally, a group of eight could easily
be travelling from roost to food source (carcass?) or vice versa.

I am more familiar with raven movements in New England, since I have only
been here in the NW a little while. In Western Massachusetts, Ravens are
seldom seen in the low elevations of the Connecticut River Valley, but are
seen in the hills on either side of it, and around the ridges or knobs
that stick up from the valley floor. What you notice when you get up on
one of those knobs with good visibility (as, for example, when
hawkwatching) is that the Ravens cross the valley all the time, high up.
Certainly many cross the valley towns daily. But from ground level in
those towns you can go years without noticing a Raven.


Chris Hill
Seattle, WA
cehill at u.washington.edu

On Tue, 3 Jan 1995, Alvaro Patricio Jaramillo wrote:

> Tweeters:
>
> Here in Vancouver Ravens are common and can be seen basically in every
> month of the year. For over a year now I have been conducting an almost
> daily bird count in a local park. I have not put in last fall's data in
> the spreadsheet yet, but I do recall that there was an increase in Raven
> during October. There is an increase during the last week of February and
> the first two of March. If my recollection of the increase in October is
> correct, then it appears that Ravens may actually be migrating through
> Vancouver during those periods. Perhaps they are heading to the San Juan
> Islands, or perhaps the Bellingham area?
> This morning I saw a flock of 8 flying over the park, way up high. All
> were flying directly south. I have no idea what these may have been doing,
> but they certainly were coming from the North Shore mountains judging
> from their direction of flight. This flock is the largest I have recorded
> from my park and its the middle of the winter when they shouldn't be migrants.
> So it appears that the movements of Ravens are complex, with movements in
> and out of the mountains.
>
> Al Jaramillo
> jaramill at sfu.ca
> Vancouver, B.C.
>
>
>