I just spent five of the best days of my life on Round Island in
Bristol Bay, Alaska, where Karen and I watched 500 Pacific Walruses
at close range and viewed nesting seabirds, including Horned Puffins,
Tufted Puffins, Common Murres, Parakeet Auklets, and others. When I
have time, I'll write a blog about the experience--which, in my
opinion, is among the premier and least-known natural experiences in
North America. For now, I just wanted to relay an interesting
observation of Common Raven behavior.

Ravens and Red Foxes are the major predators on nesting seabirds on
Round Island. When nesting is occurring, food is abundant for these
predators; eggs and nestlings (and in the case of foxes, adult
birds). Most of the food goes directly to feed young ravens and
foxes, but the adult ravens also cache food for later use. While
watching a cliffside colony of Pelagic Cormorants and Common Murres,
we saw a Raven fly to a nearby steep hillside with a bloody
nestling. Instead of eating the dead young bird, it laid the body
down and proceeded to pile stones atop it, one after another, then
ripped off some grasses and wildflowers and laid those on top,
followed by another stone or two. Then it flew off. Nature ...
endlessly fascinating!

Round Island also featured the constant mournful calls of nesting
Golden-crowned Sparrows, and the musical calls of Hermit Thrushes,
which nested in low willow thickets in the tundra.

Lee Rentz
Shelton, WA, USA
lee at leerentz.com