Gene: I saw no obvious source of food to explain the huge flock. It was
almost like it was a social gathering. Perhaps though here was a dead steer
in the sage somewhere nearby that I didn't see, but there were so many
ravens that they couldn't all have been on the steer at one time. When the
group left they all left, and there were no vultures at the site.

The land fill dump at Sahuarita, Arizona near Green Valley also attracts
large numbers of ravens both White-necked (I guess we call the Chihuahuan
Ravens now) and Northern Ravens. I don't have a specific number of birds
that I have seen there but I am sure I have seen more than a hundred at a
time. At that location it is the food source that results in the large
number. Jeff.


on 10/31/05 6:42 AM, Eugene and Nancy Hunn at enhunn323 at comcast.net wrote:

Jeff,

700! Curious point here was that it did not seem to be a feeding frenzy.
Perhaps rather a migratory drift?

Gene.

----- Original Message -----
From: Jeff Gilligan <mailto:jeffgill at teleport.com>
To: Eugene and Nancy Hunn <mailto:enhunn323 at comcast.net> ; tweeters
<mailto:tweeters at u.washington.edu>
Cc: OBOL <mailto:OBOL at lists.orst.edu>
Sent: Sunday, October 30, 2005 10:18 PM
Subject: Re: [Tweeters] big raven flock

I have twice seen very large flocks of Northern Ravens in the Pacific
Northwest. The largest of the two flocks consisted of about 700 birds just
south of the ghost town of Andrews, east of Steens Mountainin southeastern
Oregon. It was in mid-June. The sight and sounds of so many ravens
together in the otherwise quite afternoon of the desert was an experience I
will never forget. When they flew off many (or all) were calling. I have
also read somewhere of this sort of garthering of the species. Since the
species is generally more common in the remote areas east of the Cascades,
numbers together of that size would be extremely unlikely west of the
Cascades. I have never seen as many as fifty together west of the Cascades.
A decent sized gathering (perhaps 25) were together in Curry County, Oregon
on the coast in April of this year, with a sizeable number of Turkey
Vulutures and one out of place Crested Caracara also present. They were all
attracted to a dead cow and a dead sheep.

Jeff Gilligan. Portland.



on 10/29/05 6:40 PM, Eugene and Nancy Hunn at enhunn323 at comcast.net wrote:

Tweets,

After striking out on the Woodinville Blue Jay again, Nancy and I walked the
dog along the snoqualmie valley trail. We were entertatained by a swirling
flock of ravens that eventually grew to include at least 50 plus an immature
bald eagle.

I hadn't thought of ravens as forming such large flocks. They were playing
on the updraft off the hills just east of the Snoqualmie Valley.

Gene.


_______________________________________________
Tweeters mailing list
Tweeters at u.washington.edu
http://mailman1.u.washington.edu/mailman/listinfo/tweeters