This morning, after our client had left, I was sitting here on the couch enjoying the silence. I had just finished putting Hilary back to sleep after she awoke hungry. Travis and Leah were still sleeping, and as I thought about getting up to get a coffee a visitor arrived.
I’ve spoke before about how the Ravens enjoy the House, but their visits never cease to entertain me. As I looked out the garden doors a Raven swept in and landed on the rail of our deck. He was a curious mixture of sleek and tattered. His "eyebrows" up, his was a handsome visage, but his tail was in a good need of a moult.
He sprung across to the closest hand rail, and flicked off the blade of a utility knife that I found while sweeping snow the other day and set up there. Lazily he hopped down and examined it, picking it up before deciding it was off no real use. Perhaps it was too utilitarian for his needs. Then he sprang back up to the rail, just out of my sight, but not out of my hearing. He called and spoke and then he seemed to leave.
The stair treads on our decks are metal. Extremely durable, they don’t require shoveling and they scrape the snow from visitors boots. They are also function as our door bell, as you can easily hear someone climbing them from almost anywhere in the house. Not obtrusive, they have a low gentle ringing tone to them. It was clear from the sound that the Raven hadn’t left but was now on the stairs.
Peering out I saw that he had found a chunk of pink styrofoam insulation,
and he was now playing with it, moving it from beak to claws, testing it, trying to determine just what was the best use for this cool object. He tolerated my taking a picture of him, but when I moved closer to watch him as he moved down the stair I clearly was intruding. He flew down to the ground, taking the styrofoam with him.
Then he decided that the client’s deck was more inviting, no nosy human interrupting his work/play. I can still hear him over there, announcing to the world his presence, tattered tail and all.
Comments
5 responses
Love it!
You have to love the ravens. This time of year because of their hard work, they look like a WWII bomber shot full of holes because of the broken feathers. But soon they’ll molt and look brand new again.
Good heavens! What is that white stuff on the ground outside the window?
What a lovely companion for your quiet morning.
The white? I just photoshopped out all of the trees and flowers. 🙂