Ravens

I still can't get photos to upload. Yesterday I tried it on E's computer, got one to upload, and that was it. Nevertheless, I'm beginning to think my computer may have something to do with it all.

I popped in on Walking Prescott where Granny J has posted some wonderful Raven pictures, so I'm going to piggy-back on her pictures and tell you my Raven story.

When we first moved here, we could see a Raven's nest on the very-top of a huge pine tree behind what is now my Daughter Kanga's house, next door. The birds nested there for several years and we enjoyed watching them through binoculars as they raised their young.

This house is built on two levels. The upper floor being on street level in front and downstairs in the back, it's a walk out basement. One day, I was outside on the upper level when a Raven winged across the back at eye my level and close enough for me to identify the object in it's beak as a hamburger, bun and all. He flew in a straight line, then rose to deliver this tidbit to the nest. I was pretty much amazed at the time, partly because he could get his beak around a hamburger and partly because it was a hamburger, but now I know that different Ravens have different dumpsters staked out all over town. I think this must have been the Burger King Raven.

It was after this incident that my job took me out to drive thhrough deserted streets on a dawning Sunday morning. I was driving past the local High School just as a McDonald's bag dropped from the sky to land on the pavement in front of the car. Automatically, I swerved to avoid hitting it, thinking of course that, "Now that's pretty strange!"

The mystery was solved when, a short time later I retraced my route and saw several Ravens working on the bag. I thought of the way crows and other birds drop shell fish on rocks to break the shells open so they can get at the meat inside. I'm convinced the Ravens were trying that tactic to get into the contents of the bag.

It was a couple of years later when I sat in the car in the shade of some Cottonwood trees, in the High School parking lot waiting to pick up my Grandson. I had the three little girls with me, and when we'd exhausted the delights of BINGO and a few word games, I told them about the McDonald's bag Ravens and ventured the opinion that they must have been the McDonald's dumpster Ravens.

A few minutes later, we opted for some leg stretching. I stepped from the car, and hearing throaty Raven voices above me looked up into the trees. There were seven or eight Ravens, hopping about in the tree branches, and they were surrounded by McDonald's bags that had become trapped in the tree branches!

Now I'm wondering if they're still there. I'll let you know.


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