Birds and Nature

The very top pic shows a crane beginning a leap up while flapping it's wings. Though often associated with dances of breeding behavior, Birds Of North America online explains that this is a signaling behavior given by birds intending to take off to other family members. Both this video clip (they are pretty distant in the clip) and bottom pic (it is best to double click on the pic to see the extent of the view captured by that wide angle shot) show many of the Sandhill Cranes that were foraging in tilled agricultural (presumably cotton as most I saw were) fields adjacent to H87 north of Big Spring and south of Lamesa in west Texas. These cranes extended for over a mile along the highway, most on the west side but a few hundred on the east side. That was a pretty cool distraction from the otherwise not very stimulating drive between these two towns. SeEtta

This short clip shows a rather hapless hawk that flew into the midst of a loose flock of Chihuahuan Ravens and it was not welcome. Both the hawk and the ravens engage in some acrobatic warfare. This clip is best viewed in an enlarged form that can be accessed by double-clicking the small box in far bottom right corner. SeEtta

This short clip gives a closer view of two Chihuahuan Ravens. Previous to this clip the raven on the right was making a non-too-subtle move to get the food that the other raven has. The raven in the rear outsmarted it and returns to working on whatever morsel it has in its beak. SeEtta

This short video clip gives another nice view of the large concentration of Chihuahuan Ravens near Lamesa,TX as this group flies fairly close to the ground giving pretty good views. SeEtta

This raven was one of the very large winter concentration in the Lamesa, TX area. It, and many others I saw, showed very clearly the field marks of Chihuahuan Ravens. This is in contrast to a number of ravens that I see in southeastern Colorado where it is often difficult if not impossible to clearly identify birds that do not vocalize. In this pic the heavy/thick bill with rictal bristles coming almost the distal end of the bill make it clear that this is a Chihuahuan, and not a Common, Raven. SeEtta

This video clip shows one of the large loose flocks of Chihuahuan Ravens I saw in and around Lamesa, TX both on my way to the Rio Grande Valley in December and on my way back this week. Birds of North America online notes that this species is known to congregate in large numbers in western parts of Texas. More to come. SeEtta