Welcome to Week 4 of my Corvid-2020 Weekly Challenge.  Corvids are birds belonging to the Corvidae family, encompassing ravens, crows, magpies, jays and nutcrackers.  So check out your corvid photo, poetry, music and story archives and join the challenge.

Corvid-spotting is as good a game as any at the moment.  I’m not one for house cleaning or Netflix watching during this Covid-19 killing time.  Corvid-spotting is tricky because the raven is the only corvid in my village and it has been proving rather elusive.  I confess that sometimes when I am feeling rather down, I’ve been inclined to abandon this challenge, but I know you are all counting on it (like not) so I have to keep trying.  Trying to keep living, trying to keep my spirits up, etc, etc, is the story of my life at the moment; just keep going until I can’t go on anymore.  Maybe that’s your story too?

Anyway, back to the story.  I can hear the raven so I know it is there, and the raven knows that I know that it is there!  When I emerge from the house, it appears fleetingly and then vanishes, mocking me with its mournful cry.

Bird:  Excuse me, I’m a handsome, intelligent bird, so will I do?

currawong

Me:  No, Currawong friend.  You belong to the Artamidae family and are only distantly related to the Corvidae family.  You belong to the superfamily, Malaconotoidea, which encompasses the shrikes.

Bird:  Sorry, at least I tried.

Me:  I’m all for trying.

Anyway, back to the story again.  I got really excited today when I heard a raven calling and I spotted a movement in a distant tree.  There it was!  In clear view.  At least it was until I pressed the camera shutter button.  Foiled again.  As the bushranger Ned Kelly is reported to have said before he hung for his crimes, “Such is life.”  Only he didn’t actually say that.   Dear Readers, I will let you be the judge as to whether the ending of this story, like the Kelly ending, is pure fiction or not.

rv1

Aussie Readers, here is a link to hear the calls of the forest raven, little raven, Australian raven and Torresian Crow.   I suspect the link may only work for Aussies due to geo-blocking by our public broadcaster.  Give it a try, I could be wrong about that.

You can participate in the Corvid-2020 Weekly Challenge by creating a pingback to this post (my pingback approval settings are set up for manual approval, so it may take a little while for your pingback to appear) and/or by leaving a hyperlink to your submission in the comments.   Tag your post Corvid-2020 or C20WC.  I really do hope you will join in.

Kind Regards.
Tracy.

36 thoughts on “Corvid-2020 Weekly Challenge #4”

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  2. Poor currawong bird! 😂 But he’s so right – we can only try. 😄 And I’m rather fond of your raven pic, the silhouette is so l- it would do great on a t-shirt. 😉

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      1. Not much convincing needed – I’m starving for new projects! I even risked coloring my hair with Henna yesterday – now I look like a big friendly red squirrel! 😀

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  3. I’m so glad you aren’t abandoning the challenge. I haven’t got any new photos, YET, this year, so I’m going through my files and enjoying the challenge. The link worked for me here in Canada. It was interesting to hear the differences in the calls!

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  9. Tracy you might like this meme that has developed around our Chief Medical Health Officer for the Province of British Columbia, Dr. Bonnie Henry has become much watched for her daily press briefings on the progress of the C 19 virus. Her calm rational demeanour is much loved! The Ravens have been watching also and they want her shoes. Google ‘’Dr. Bonnie Henry’s shoes” and view what has been driving the ravens out of their trees. I’m sure you will enjoy the irony of how she keeps her feet on the ground.

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      1. I should look for something similar for New England. There are so many birds I hear around my house, some of which I’ve been hearing since childhood, and I want to know what they are.

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  11. Currawong – I love Australian names. The bird calls were fun to listen to, especially the engaging announcer. We have ravens here in Lake Forest, (Southern) California. They’re noisy, messy, and they dominate, scaring away most other birds. Your last photo is a real stunner.

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  12. I know, actually, but this is a eucalyptus forest, meaning it’s a total fake. It is at best a woody area, there are only these danged eucalyptus trees here, they were planted by a dingbat who thought he knew all about woods and trees but knew nothing. We get an occasional peregrine falcon pair, but it’s mostly these ravens-maybe-really-crows-who-knows.

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  13. Cool post Tracy!
    We see a lot of the smaller Corvids but I have never seen a wild Raven in the UK. The captive ones at the Tower of London are famous, but they are rare in the wild and confined to mountainous areas.

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