Raining Ravens

While camping last week in the Sierra foothills, I got to witness a wonderful event; the first flight of a Common Raven. I have been fortunate enough to have seen many birds leave their nest for the first time and venture out in to the world. It always excites and inspires me. It is a view of the future, what will this new life include? It is a continuation of the past, linking each individual to their ancestors. It is a reminder that on this great web of evolving lineages, we are all connected to one another.

This particular first flight was, admittedly, not wildly successful. The ravens had built their nest in a large spruce tree that was just a dozen or so yards from where we were camped with a group of our friends. On Tuesday, the 17th of June, one of the young ravens decided that the time was right. It spread its wings and leaped out of the nest. It did not get far, as it glided right over our campground and crashed clumsily into a tree. it then attempted to flap its way higher up the tree, but only succeeded in knocking itself lower and lower until finally it fell out of the bottom branches of the tree and onto the ground about 4 feet from where my 1.5 year old daughter was playing with her friends! They all looked at each other for a moment. The kids looked at the raven with surprise and the raven look at the kids with the same expression. After a few seconds just staring at each other, the bird turned and hopped off through the trees. Rather soon, one of the adult ravens had found the wayward youngster and commenced yelling at the young bird until it found a tree with a lot of low branches and was able to scramble awkwardly up off the ground.

Over the next couple of hours, two more young ravens dropped out of the nest ending up scattered around that patch of forest. All seemed healthy and strong and began to explore their, suddenly expanded, world. The adults certainly had their work cut out for them as they tried to feed and keep track of the three young birds wandering through the trees, and the forest was loud with all of them calling back and forth to one another.

A pretty exciting and memorable event for all concerned!

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