I spent another weekend at home, following a cortisone shot to my knee on Friday. I'd hoped that I'd be able to go out to Bodega Head today to shadow seabird monitoring on Bodega Rock, but I over-did it yesterday shopping when I was supposed to take it easy on my knee and keep it iced. I wasn't supposed to go today anyway.
The situation makes me feel a little like I'm back in the pandemic lockdown, when I first realized that my brand new apartment (upon returning to Petaluma) got plenty of sun but the view was of the back of the plaza and the apartments across the parking lot. I was rather used to being on the creek side of the building, looking out on a more natural setting, and watching the hawks nest over the creek.
But over the last couple weeks, I've been watching these ravens fly in and out of a tree across the parking lot from me, just in front of one of the third floor apartments. It's been happening with increasing frequency, so I became a little suspicious. I couldn't make out much with naked eye, but after seeing them so consistently, I knew they must be nesting, although it seemed an odd place for ravens to nest. I'm used to seeing them nesting in more open spaces, on stands, on cliff faces, never in shady, full trees.
So I pulled out my binoculars, and could see it a lot more clearly with 12x
and with my camera, at 60x, even more detail was revealed.
I watched the nest for a while through my camera, hoping the ravens would come back, and very quickly realized that there were already ravens in the nest... baby ravens (?)... although I couldn't make them out in the deep shadows, I could see movement of the branches and the nest material that was inconsistent with the gentle breeze which didn't even stir the leaves.
I find myself a bit happier now, because although my current limits on hiking are coming to an end and I'll soon be out photographing and viewing a wider variety of plants and animals, I find it comforting to know there is something here to view, in an unexpected place, right from my window.
Huzzah for baby birds! And Ravens are fun to watch, they have such style. Unfortunately we don't have them where I live, the big birds here are crows. And they are the rudest birdies to grace the skies! They go up on our roof and bang against the vents - I swear they are laughing while they do it! And on trash day they flap-hop from one house to the next, seeing if there's a visible bag they can peck open. I really don't know if these birds have a single redeemable quality. If you find they do please let me know!
ReplyDeleteI don't know if we're going to have baby birds. I think the ravens have abandoned the nest site, realizing it's not the best location. I assumed there were baby ravens because of the movement, but I think it was the mate, trying to build the nest.
DeleteWhen I walked Cinnamon over the other day, I got a look at the tree and the nest from different angles, and the nest was not complete nor sound. There were a lot of gaps in it, and today I haven't seen the ravens at all. I am wondering if they found a better site.