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| FTLComm - Tisdale - Wednesday, July 21, 2004 | ||||||
 A raven sitting on a person's lap! I stopped and backed up and this was not an illusion there it was a raven. Without even pulling over to the curb with camera in hand I had to get these pictures for you. I asked if I would disturb him if I came closer and was assured that this fellow could handle the disturbance. He is just a little more than two months old and was an orphan. For whatever reason he was found helpless on the ground and there was nothing to do but feed him and in the beginning that meant an eye dropper. But as you can see this young bird is now just a bit bigger than a chicken only with more than three feet of wing span. At this point I have to appologise for the pictures. Quite honestly |
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 to be this close to such a being I was more than a little flustered. He is unbelievably curious and that should come as no shock to anyone as the Raven is at the top of the animal kingdom's intelligence pecking order right up there with whales, dolphins and above border collies. At two months he wants to learn about everything and with his mobility is similar to what you would expect from an eighteen month old baby human. He is free to roam around and as we talked he drifted off like a little child would distracted by something around the corner of the house. He lives in the house and seemed to have imprinted on his adopted parent. I mentioned that parrots are known to be protective and jealous and indeed this fellow |
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 also shows these tendencies but mostly he acts like a little boy. Above he was watching a vehicle come up the street but soon returned to the two humans talking and I got a really up close encounter, to close to get a good picture but as his care giver pointed out: "He loves laces." Actually it is not the laces that fascinate him but rather what they do as he quickly figured out the pattern on my shoes and within minutes I had to tie my right shoe up three times. He turned his attention to my left shoe then there was a sharp snap as that huge bill cracked against my bright gold wedding band. Just as a curious child he has to taste and check everything out. One thing about him is as yet not developed. Besides being small in stature simply because of his early age he has a very limited vocabulary. Ravens have outstanding hearing and can reproduce almost any sound they hear in their environment, from electric motors to dog barks. Indeed there are many cases of them mastering some words in English. But this guy is only two months and has a life expectancy of more than thirty-five years so he has lots of time to learn to say more than the "Auckkkkk" sound he now does with everything he does as he makes sure his human adopted parent knows what he is up to. This animal is completely unafraid of humans but remember he is just a toddler so if you should encounter him remember the picture at the top of the page and note just how big that bill is, then consider that it might be best not to be to close to it, this raven is curious and best viewed at a distance. |
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