Irene wrote:

>if we have ravens here? Either I saw one who was cruising over
Rattlesnake Lake on Xmas morning or the crows are getting scarily big
around here. I can NEVER remember what it is that's diagnostic about tail
shape. Anyone have a mnemonic for crows/ravens? Anyway, this bird had
learned to soar from some hawk school of flight and he was just chortling
away to himself. The sun was out and the mtns had a lovely white coat.
That was our church for the holiday.

They are fairly common in wooded and mountainous areas outside of the urban
core. The three identification things I can put a word on are: they are
much larger than crows, generally are seen singly or in pairs, and the tail
is spade shaped (or put another way, the central tail feathers extend
further than the marginal ones). I'm not up on bird sounds, but they also
seem to have a different and much fuller bag of calls/songs than crows.
They are great fliers. It sounds like a wonderful christmas morning.

And on the holiday theme, thank you everyone who is part of this list, and
makes it such a great place. I have learned so much. The foray's into
larger issues are wonderful in the diversity and depth of opinions and
knowledge expressed. Thank you everyone.


Michael Kennedy <mkennedy at waypt.com>
Port Townsend, WA, USA