Subject: [Tweeters] Re: Bir Raven Flocks
Date: Oct 31 15:55:15 2005
From: Eugene and Nancy Hunn - enhunn323 at comcast.net


Ah, the raven thread.

It was odd how these ravens just sort of appeared out of nowhere to join the
gathering, first just three, then ten, then fifteen, etc.

What about the season? Are these Big Time raven parties, potlatches, or
whatever, related to seasonal activities such as pairing up?

I've read _Ravens in Winter_. Great read. What a crazy author. But I can't
recall if he explained this particular phenom.

Have you ever seen ravens fly upside down, just for the fun of it?

Gene Hunn.

----- Original Message -----
From: <maitreya at OregonVOS.net>
To: "Jeff Gilligan" <jeffgill at teleport.com>
Cc: "Eugene and Nancy Hunn" <enhunn323 at comcast.net>; "tweeters"
<tweeters at u.washington.edu>; "OBOL" <obol at lists.orst.edu>
Sent: Monday, October 31, 2005 11:55 AM
Subject: Bir Raven Flocks


>I once observed a flock of ~500 Ravens, in July, in the back country of
> Crater Lake National Park (southeast of Mt.Scott). For me also, it was an
> unforgettable experience. I was able to watch them for approximately an
> hour. None of them were feeding on anything. As far as I could tell
> there were no concentrated food sources in that part of the forest. They
> were very vocal and my intuitive impression of what I saw was that it was
> a social event. Which begs the question, how do Ravens organize such
> gatherings of the clan. It seems to me that, if such gatherings of the
> clan produce new mated pairs, there also may be an evolutionary adaptation
> at play, one that braodens the genetic diversity of the species.
>
> Maitreya
>
>
>>
>> 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.
>>
>>
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