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Black Birds ‍
‍A slow “whoop…whoop…whoop” passes overhead. A vulture. But no… a very big and very black bird, but not a vulture. Raven? Big black bird settles beside a large nest near the top of a young white pine. Nest building? I’m intrigued! “Caw, caw! Caw, caw!” One of the neighborhood crows calls, another answers, then a third. “Caw, caw, caw!” The big bird reaches into the nest, jostles his head around, removes the tip of an oak branch, drops it to the ground. Next he pulls out a stick and drops it to the ground. “Caw! Caw!” Neighborhood crows are not happy. “Caw, caw!” One crow soars towards the top of the white pine, circling the tree in a tight spiral. The big bird bounces on its slender limb and pulls another twig from the nest. “Caw, Caw! Caw! CAW!” Several crows fly in, and big bird lifts off in leisurely flight out through winter-bare canopy. Of course it does, right as I’m trying to focus the camera for a photo op. “Caw! Caw! Caw! Caw!” Crows are in pursuit, over the ravine, around behind our house, over a gap in the trees where two birds are clearly silhouetted against the gray sky. Big bird–twice as big–is a raven, at the southern tip of its range, being chased off by five neighborhood crows. I wonder if the crows will ever come back to that nest, and if it was, in fact, a crow’s nest. I wonder whether the crows may have somehow first offended the raven. I wonder! ~K