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Fuckin' weird wild animals!

I came outside and fed the outside cats (they're old and they like to be fed more than once a day) and the usual retinue of feathered friends showed up. The local magpie family popped by for a visit. They often pick at the dried cat food, then fly off and do their usual hunting and so forth. They're very friendly and sweet and like to talk to you. Come right up to you, those socialible buggers!

Anyway, if the magpies turn up, soon to follow are the ravens. We tend to call them "crows" but they're apparently officially ravens. There's eleven of them that's taken to hanging around, which is odd cause we used to have just the one breeding pair living in the tree above our house. I suspect it might have something to do with Cottesloe's recent rather violent answer to raven overpopulation - shooting them. Which is absolutely bloody ridiculous. They are far too intelligent for that. They just naff off somewhere else, which I suppose solves Cottesloe's problem of having too many ravens around, but doesn't really help with their population numbers.

Anyway, I don't like leaving out too much for the ravens cause they're big piggies. Wolf it all down and leave none for the cats. So I make sure to put out enough for the cats, the magpies pick at the scraps and then if there's any left over, the ravens can try their luck. I can't stop them - believe me, we've tried. We have to put our dried cat food in sealed containers and still the fuckers get into it if they find where we've hid the container.

I don't mind them so much, they're beautiful birds. I just think that they're so clever and savvy as animals, they don't need our help. The magpies sort of give a trade-off of being so personable and friendly. I mean, ours will eat out of our hand. But they don't trust all humans, just the ones they know feed the cats. One actually landed on my Dad's back when he was bending over to feed Melma one time.

Now to the story that this post is named for. I didn't leave enough for the ravens this morning. There's plenty of bugs in the clothes line and the lawn for them to be going on with, and it's much more fun for them to dig around in the dirt and in holes than chasing the wild kibble. I went inside.

It was dark in the lounge, which overlooks the patio and where the birds like to hang out. It also overlooks the clothes line. It's a rotary clothes line with joints in it to fold up. The ravens love sitting on it. So I open the curtains and let the sunshine in.

Anyway, I'm sitting on the couch with the laptop and I feel like I'm being watched. I look up. On the line there's a raven. And the bastard thing is *staring* at me. The fucking thing KEEPS staring at me, for about five to ten minutes. I valiantly ignore it, but it's really unnerving being watched so closely by a known carrion bird.

I cannot fathom why the bird was staring at me. Did it want me to come back out again? Was it just watching me out of idle curiosity? Was it looking for Rogue, who is usually stationed at the window, staring at her favourite thing in the world - birdies? Who knows.

Random comment to end on - I love how raven's eyes are white. That's so awesome.

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Were you dreaming of your lost Lenore again?

If Lenore is a tall, weedy, brown-eyed Time Lord with weird hair, then yes.

Did you know you can sing ANY Edgar Allan Poe poem to the tune of The Yellow Rose Of Texas?Who was a mulatto prostitute favoured by General Santa Ana.

That's Emily Dickinson, I believe.

I cannot fathom why the bird was staring at me.

"Bitch, get out heah and give me mah free food, goldurnit!"

Don't you know you're a terrible person for feeding outside animals you should bring them all inside even the ferals because I'm sure ferals will take to being confined indoors really well because letting cats outside ever is going to lead to their instant death?

I am laughing at you here.

Bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad!

I don't let Rogue out, but that's because I don't have the emotional energy to deal with bad things possibly happening to her. (Minor injury, etc). Plus she's super-attached to people and she's really dumb-stupid. Like, running-into-walls stupid. It's a kindness, really, to keep her in. The other two, however, are more than happy out of doors.

... Yeah. LOL. Lenny is the most feral boy ever. What, with his sleeping in the grass and moving a few metres to eat cat food. LOL! Couldn't get that sucker to live inside if I TRIED, he's territorial and pisses on everything. Even though I spayed him.

And Melma shits in stupid places. Once, she took a piss in the fish tank.

So there's a reason we kick 'em out at night. LOL!

All my old,spilled catfood goes outside.Hedgehogs eat it as well as robins,blackbirds and magpies.The cats just let them.Also, this is how I end up feeding then adopting strays.

My inside cat doesn't like to eat catfood that is more than a few hours old. This is another thing that the wild animals are allowed to eat. The bits and pieces at the bottom of her feed bowl.

I love seeing wild animals.

Magpies approach the intelligence of ravens, but they're less shy (Australian ravens are very shy birds, generally, and unless they've become quite used to being fed by humans, will startle, and tend to fly away after more than five seconds of direct eye contact). So I'd say yours was waiting for food.

We do get crows in Perth, but they're way less common in the suburbs, and you're more likely to find them down south. As most corvids in Australia have white eyes (versus everywhere else, where crows and ravens have black eyes mostly), it's hard to tell them apart.

Also, it's pretty normal for there to be 'groups' of ravens at the moment, and for the next few months. Bachelor groups set up as juveniles are kicked out of the nest and out of territories - they band up together so they can force themselves into the territories of monogamous pairs and eat their food. I've seen groups of up to sixty, but smaller numbers of 10-20 are more common. They tend to be nomadic, staying for a few weeks before bombing into another territory. Eventually, they will pair up into monogamous pairs, form their own territory, and have to deal with the same shit from their own teenagers. Lol.

/end epic ramble.

I didn't realise there aren't many crows in the suburbs of Perth generally. There are heaps in my local area (Victoria Park).

Perth, Western Australia is almost exclusively populated with Australian Ravens (which look and can sound like crows, so it can be easy to get confused - also, in the Australian vernacular, ravens are generally called 'crows' by everyone; so people are often surprised to find out that the black, cawing birds they've been calling crows all their life are Corvus coronoides - the Australian Raven).

The Little Crow can occasionally be found in the suburbs, but they don't breed here. Are you absolutely certain it's crows that you're seeing, vs. ravens? How are you telling the difference?

Hmm, maybe they're not crows then? I was always told that they were when I moved to Perth.

... Wow. You just told me a buttload of stuff about these birds that I couldn't find on the frickin' internet!! I was totally curious about raven behaviour but I couldn't really find much about them other than the very basics.

Our ravens are rather friendly for ravens. I mean, they let us within three metres of them, and sometimes respond to us when we talk to them. I love it when they make little throat-vocalisations. "Arrrrrr-rubble-rabble-rowr..."

I like to collect the feathers they drop and use them in rustic witchipoo decorations. :)

What cracks me up about these ravens is their irrepressibleness. Seriously, it's tough to outwit these mofos.

I tried to see if they'd use tools by gluing a clear plastic tube to a flat piece of MDF and seeing if they used sticks to get the cat food out (that I put inside).

I came out later and the clear plastic tube had been ripped off the base. The sticks were gone. There was bird shit everywhere. Fuckin' jerks. LOL!

And if we put all the cat tins in a bag after they've been emptied, the next day we'll come out and they'll be all over the friggin' joint. So frustrating.

But what's super cute is that they peel the labels off the unopened tins. Like, they know there's a bit that you have to get off them. Clever buggers!

If they're making the quieter vocalisations, it means they're pretty relaxed / comfortable around you. :)

What cracks me up about these ravens is their irrepressibleness. Seriously, it's tough to outwit these mofos.

Ravens (and crows) are accepted to be more intelligent than dogs; and to have intelligence on par with dolphins, whales and the big apes. Very smart. They have the largest brains in proportion to body size of any bird. They are capable of tool use, complex problem solving, and have one of the most complex languages in the bird world.

As for peeling off the labels, they may just be doing that for fun! Ravens are innately destructive birds, because they learnt a long time ago that pulling trees / bark apart = food. So now it = pulling lots of crap apart. Heh. But they do it for play too.

I've seen bachelor groups play games of 'drop the leaf into your beak,' or 'this is MY stick, come catch it!' and whole heaps of things. They essentially create their own toys.

I once saw a baby raven put a wet piece of paper on its head and the strut around all puffed up, like it had done something amazing.

I love them. But then, they are my totem, so... I'm incredibly biased.

That is some amazing behaviour! Ours just sit in trees and talk to each other.

One funny thing they do. If I lie down in the grass, they start making noise. I wonder if they think I've karked it or something? LOL!

Sometimes I can hear them walking around on our tin roof. Their claws scratch at the galvanised tin. If it were human nails it'd be a horrible sound but they're thin claws with their paddy bird feed, so it's kind of hilarious.

I'm glad to know the birds that live here aren't unhappy with my presence. :)

(And really, ravens are an awesome totem animal to have. I think mine is the cat. I'm pretty sure it is.)

I'm squeefully excited by your knowledge of our Ravens, and adore your art, so am friending you! Hope you don't mind!

The art - I loves it too. Saw her devart profile and just fell in love.

Yes, we're fangirling you, darling. LOL!

It was using the Force! Willing you to bring out more food! XD

Ravens are totally AMAZING birds.

Aren't they, just? I spent time with some this morning. I was really excited because they came within two metres of me to get at some food. I tried talking to them but they just gave me this, "What the hell do you think you're doing?" look.

There was a totally funny moment in the kitchen today. I was singing a pop song that had a call-back melody, and just as I sang it, this raven outside the window did it at the right time and the right key. It was totally coincidental cause it was flying overhead and it was a regular raven vocalisation but it cracked my Mum and I up. Guess you had to be there, LOL.

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