Showing posts with label raven. Show all posts
Showing posts with label raven. Show all posts

Tuesday, 15 March 2011

Animals are stirring & restless

We like going for drives, checking out new spots to visit. We took a trip to Brockville, as my services were not need at Day Hospice. Spotted animals on the ice, playing during March Break!


You can see the melting shoreline, with eager fishers on the ice!

I spoke this morning about the red fox we spotted by the side of the road.


How precious! The animals are waking up from their quiet sleep, some hibernate, some migrate, some estivate. This little guy was so cute. We spotted him in March, 2010.

Animals have different reactions to both cold and heat.
Basically, they aggregate, some for warmth (from our deer, to  mourning doves), then some migrate when food sources dry up. Like our Canada geese. I saw about 100 of them flying in formation yesterday. A sight for sore eyes!

Insects suspend normal life cycles, diapause, between autumn and spring. Reptiles begin brumation in last fall. Reptiles and amphibians are ectothermic, cold-blooded, and cannot thermoregulate.
Estivation (aestivation), is torpor, dormancy or sleep, for critters escaping extreme heat or cold. Som
e animals exhibit diurnal torpor, i.e., bats, who are sleepy in the day.

I'm looking forward to the nocturnal, diurnal critters.
We have a pileated woodpecker who has been louder than usual, seeking insects in our trees.
Dec. 20, 2008
I haven't captured a photo here yet, aside from seeing it on the day we first looked at this house! I shall keep my eagle eyes open!


Today, at the feeder, I spotted Tigger, missing some fur on its neck, sadly, eating all alone. It looks more like a wound from a fence, than anything. I'm open to suggestions from more savvy deer-watchers!

grassy knoll - spot the deer peeking at me?
The deer, usually a group of 9 doe and a few yearlings, often sit or stand up on our 'grassy knoll'. The deer give birth soon, like many mammals.




After Tigger left, there were the typical mourning doves, two red squirrels, three ravens, a grackle, downy and hairy woodpeckers, three blue jays and the ubiquitous chickadees. I love their flight patterns.

June 2, 2009

Friday, 26 March 2010

Corvid Resources

I was listening to a fascinating story on CBCs IDEAS program.They were speaking with a researcher who found that the ravens passed on learned behaviour: harassing the researchers who had previously banded generations of birds years ago.

This led to my photos and post...

Hacker and writer Joshua Klein talks about the intelligence of crows and his invention of the crow vending machine. A bit bizarre, one wonders....
whether he is a white-hat or black-hat hacker...I reserve the right to doubt!

Books




In The Company of Crows and Ravens. John M. Marzluff and Tony Angell. Yale University Press, 2005.

  • Crow Planet: Essential Wisdom from The Urban Wilderness. Lyanda Lynn Haupt. Little, Brown and Company, 2009.
    Crow
    . Boria Sax. Reaktion Books, 2003.
  • Crow: Encounters With The Wise Guys of the Avian World. Candace Savage. Greystone Books, 2005.
  • Bird Brains: The Intelligence of Crows, Ravens Magpies and Jays. Candace
  • Savage. Greystone Books, 1995.
  • Ravens, Crows, Magpies, and Jays. Tony Angell. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1978.
  • Mind of the Raven: Investigatoins and Adventures with the Wolf-Bird. Bernd Heinrich. Cliff Street Books, 1999.
  • Ravenson: A Naturral and Fabulous History of Ravens and Crows. Catherine Feher-Elston. Northland Publishing, 1991
Other...
    Kevin McGowan is a behavioral ecologist who studies birds, especially the social behavior of crows in Ithaca, New York.

    The story of the pitcher and the crow. More fact than fiction.

    Oxford Team Discovers Crows Can Use Complex Sequences Of Tools To Reach A Reward

    Wild crows in Japan have a refined technique for cracking nuts.(Dropping them in traffic!)


    A Murder of Crows

    Watch this film online.   45:12 min