Today I was surprised twice. On a street lamp near my school a raven and
crow perched, more or less side by side. It was a great study in the
contrasts between these two birds in size, bill shape and feather patterns.
It would have made a great picture. As I stopped my car to observe this odd
couple, the crow flew across the street to another street lamp. The raven
was obviously vocalizing, so I rolled down my window. To my astonishment,
the raven was Cawwing, just like crow. At first I thought maybe I was
misinterpreting what I was hearing, that another bird was making the caw,
but sure enough, upon close watching, the raven gave a series of caws, just
like a crow. Then I began to question my id of this bird, but there was
absolutely no mistaking the bill size, the throat feathers, the tail length
and shape plus the larger size. clearly it was raven, cawwing like a crow.
After several caw sequences, the raven made the classic raven "Quortal"
noise, then made a couple of normal raven calls. Then it cawwed a few more
series before flying off.

This is the first Raven I have ever seen in the town of Monroe, and I never
heard of Ravens and crows talking to each other, nor perching side by side.
My students had many theories about this, my favorite was the idea that this
raven was raised to be bilingual by progressive raven parents and the the
crow was his cawing teacher.

Rob Sandelin
Naturalist, Writer, Teacher
Monroe, WA

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