My heat came on earlier, woke me up. "What's that sound?" The dog didn't know.
Five days ago, daytime temps here were above 110F (43C), last night, temps got below 50F (10C). I've actually seen swings that big in a single day but it isn't common.
It rained yesterday, too. First time in more than a month, though it hasn't been enough to measure all summer.
There are ravens on my roof. The dog hates that, running up and down the hallway trying to see them, going, "Woofle?" under her breath.
It's funny, in the rain, you seldom see ravens, only crows. But if it's cold enough, the crows huddle in trees and under eaves and grumble while the ravens bounce around like cartoon tigers.
I like living here.
Hugs,
Erin
Comments
You have ravens?!
I'm sooo jealous! We have lots of crows, but no ravens. I blame Poe for my love of ravens. ;)
The weather here is much the same, but considering I just live a few hundred miles north of you that's not surprising. Friday (the first day of the Sacramento Anime Convention (SacAnime)) I was wearing a short pleated catholic school girl style skirt and short sleeve button up blouse with fishnet arm warmers and knee high fishnet stockings and I was plenty warm (it was at least 100F). Now I'm wearing a long sleeve, long velvet dress and I still need a jacket! I wouldn't be surprised if we got some rain, too.
I want to see the bouncing ravens... :(
Saless
"But it is also tradition that times *must* and always do change, my friend." - Eddie Murphy, Coming To America
Ravens and Crows
Until the 60s, we didn't have crows and starlings in this area, just jays and ravens. The crows moved in from the north and west during the period when DDT was suppressing the populations of insect-eating birds and bird-eating birds like peregrines. Omnivorous crows and starlings were able to move in since they don't object to people and traffic as much as jays and ravens.
Now the crows have moved in and the ravens are pushed up the mountain and out into the desert and the jays are scarce at lower altitudes. I like crows, too, but it is a shame not to see the lovely scrub and Stellar's jays. The grackles and falcons are back, though.
In the desert where I grew up, nearer the Colorado, we had both the big solid black northern ravens and the less-often-seen, black-and-gray, smaller Sonoran ravens. And buzzards and buzzard hawks aplenty. :)
Hugs,
Erin
= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.
= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.
Ravens
Or cigfran, "meat crow", in Welsh. I love when they display in spring with a flying half roll, their wingbeats audible as they 'kronk' past overhead.
High divers
They also do this thing where they will fly up together, then fold their wings partly and fall almost to the ground before swooping out of the dive. :)
Hugs,
Erin
= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.
= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.
Black and White
Years ago, I worked at a very dirty and filthy place, the county dump. I finally was fired because I missed too many days of work disregarding the fact I was ill from working there. However even there I found beauty.
One day in the late summer when the birds were relocating for the season, I was out preparing trailers to be hauled out with stuff our facility couldn't process. Usually we're waist deep in seagulls gorging themselves. Busy working I didn't notice right off hand that the squawking noisy GU-11's weren't underfoot.
Looking up a flock of crows or ravens had flown in to contest the treasures. Above me in a huge swirl were wings of black flying one way while wings of white flew the other. About as close to a real life yin-yang symbol as I'd ever seen. It was one of those "Whoa!" events for me. Of course I didn't have a camera handy but I'll always remember that scene. Alas, as much as I love to draw this is yet another picture my skills fall far short of being able to render. Sigh.
Hugs!
Grover
Crows and Gulls
Those were crows, ravens seldom flock in groups of more than eight or ten.
In Orange County the two types of birds have developed a style of peaceful coexistence, staking out various territories. In the evenings, you can see the gulls returning from inland areas to sleep on the beach while the crows head to Disneyland and the Fullerton Arboretum where tall trees can be found in groups.
There are also parrots, the red-headed green-winged conures and the bigger Amazons and a few flocks of rarer types. Crows, gulls and jays won't mess with the parrots unless they outnumber them ten to one or more. Those little curved beaks are strong and can do a lot of damage. Even hawks avoid parrots unless they can pick off a loner now and then. Peregrines are fast enough to pick a parrot off the edge of the flock and get away before they can be mobbed.
It's funny to see mockingbirds harassing a crow, then a flock of crows mobbing a raven, then a group of ravens attacking a redtail hawk, then a couple of redtails chasing a peregrine. :)
Hugs,
Erin
= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.
= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.
Different species.
One of the problems I have with transatlantic bird names is that they often don't apply to the same species of bird.
The best example of this is the European Robin and the American Robin.
British robin small bird fit in the palm of your hand, brown with red breast.
American Robin much bigger with red breast but grey black and brown plumage.
What you Americans call buzzards we call vultures whilst our European buzzards are the same family of Acepptrydia as Eagles.
And so it goes on. I'm wondering if your grey and black Ravens are the same species of Corvidia as our hooded crows I just don't know.
Our European crows rarely flock, they are solitary birds. Rooks and Jackdaws flock by the hundreds and sometimes thousands in Britain so I'm wondering if your crows are our rooks. God knows, it's all so confusing.
As to the bird-life around my neck of the woods, Port Talbot, South Wales. It's quite bizarre, we get it all.
We have a phenomenal variety of bird life because of the extremes of geography and climate. Beaches, mountains, woodland, heavy industry, parkland-pastures, extensive marshland and urban sprawl all within 3 miles of my front door.
Most people in the South Wales valleys get sheep raiding their garbage, we get sheep, deer and very occasionally, wild boar, (They escaped from a local park and they are bloody dangerous and have to be culled ASAP.) All this less than 1.5 miles from two of the biggest blast furnaces in Europe. I tell you it's wierd but supremely interesting.
Makes life interesting though.
Birds of a Feather
We incorrectly call turkey vultures, buzzards. We have turkey vultures and smaller black vultures. The parrots in southern California amaze me. There were a few 50 years ago, but now there are flocks everywhere. The scrub jays are getting scarce in the Altadena/Pasadena area. The stellar jays usually stay in the mountains. My sister-in-law blames the crows. They are so invasive. All the starlings are due to a lady releasing 48 into Central Park because she missed them, being from Europe. They are taking over many other native species habitats. It is very unfortunate. the cats in my stories have free rein to kill all the starlings they want.
Portia
Portia
Name of a Name
Since they're just as closely related to Eurasian buzzards as to vultures, either name is really wrong -- or right -- for American vultures and condors! You can call them vultures as a job description or buzzards as a description of what their flight patterns look like. We do have real buzzards here, though. Redtail hawks are the same genus as the Buteo buzzards of Europe and look much the same but are bigger with redder tails.
Yeah, starlings are pretty invasive and I think compete more directly with the jays. They are entertaining to watch though, as they are at least twice as boisterous and rambunctious as crows. :)
Hugs,
Erin
= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.
= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.
American "vultures"
American "vultures" are not related to the Falconiformes closely at all, they are probably a branch off the ancestral stock that led to storks and cranes. They live and look much like Old World vultures, though.
The American Robin is a thrush that happens to have a redbreast and is an early arrival in Spring in the colder climates here. Locally, we have a similar bird we call an oriole that is here year round.
All crows, ravens, rooks, magpies, jackdaws, jays etc. are fairly closely related and what name goes with which bird is just a matter of local tradition, pretty much. Our Northern raven is a population of the same species as found in Eurasia. The Sonoran raven is a species or subspecies that will interbreed with the Northern ones, they look pretty much the same except for a gray ruff instead of a black one and a slightly smaller size. They also speak with an accent. :)
We have four species of crow in North America, all of which look pretty much like the European crow but act like European rooks. Rook is an accepted alternate name for our crows, though they are a bigger bird. We have jays instead of jackdaws, less communal and more colorful.
We have lions (cougars), bears, wild sheep, wild donkeys, deer, wild boar all within eight or ten miles of where I live.
Hugs,
Erin
= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.
= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.
Vultures
Were you aware that a vulture will not eat a dead lawyer out of deference?
I forgot about the condors that are making a strong comeback. I used to back pack into Sespe Creek when there were several pairs nesting up there. I saw one up close and personal one morning - Impressive. This was in the early 1960's. Sespe used to be a fantastic place to hike into. Fabulous fishing for native trout. I'm not sure if it's even possible to get into the lower canyon anymore. The scenery up there is National Park worthy.
Portia
Portia
Birds
Should I mention I am a really serious bird watcher? It serves a truly useful purpose when cycling; I am not stopping on that long hill because I am unfit, I am doing so because there is a really interesting bird just over THERE.
Trivia time: the glorious Mauschwitz/Duckau that gave us the live action "Dalmatians" that put skunks in England, also gave us Mary Poppins, where the spponful of sugar robin was actually Turdus migratorius, the American robin.
Ravens on my Roof
Jazz it up a little
with some
hipster-doofus arbitrary
line breaks
and you'd have
a pretty nice free verse poem there,
i think.
~~~hugs, Laika
Well shit, I guess it really CAN happen here..,
.
I'm a Poet and Don't Know It
LOL.
Hugs,
Erin
= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.
= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.
*Fingers snapping*
You're one crazy chick... I can hear Dave Brubeck's Take Five playing in the background and the smell of Espresso fills the joint. Ronnie and I are sitting at the table in front wearing our black tights black wool skirts and ballet flats and berets and long green cable-knit sweaters and black turtle-necks. "Cool, Girl, Real Cool!!!!"
Dio vi benedica tutti
Con grande amore e di affetto
Andrea Lena
Love, Andrea Lena
struck me...
...as a sorta Harry Dean Stanton Grapes of Wrath-esque monologue. Split rail fences and dusty vistas with little 'willy willys' or whatever you guys call 'em. (very baby tornados) with a bit of dark Ry Cooder slide work wriggling into yer head. Never did read that book, yeah I know.. but I did see Paris Texas...hah.
Kristina
You forgot
Snapping your fingers and saying "Real gone"