Carrion Ravens ...

.... or Carry On Raving.

Before getting on to that I will include a snap taken earlyish this morning on O'Connor Ridge.  My attention was drawn to a sort of begging bird call which went on and on (rather like a Carry On movie).  I suspected it was a raptor and so it turned out to be.  Obviously an Accipiter and then my best photo showed the talons.
That long it has to be a Collared Sparrowhawk rather than a Brown Goshawk.  Given the begging type calls I'd rate it an indolent young bird and its large size must mean a female.

Anyhow to business. I am not making a claim for having seen a Carrion Crow (Corvus corone) in Canberra.  As the species has never been recorded in Australia that would almost certainly need a detailed set of field notes, a DNA sample and, for the traditionalists with bloodlust, a corpse,  The range of the species according to eBird is shown here.
I suspect the gap between about Hungary and Kazakhstan is more to do with the distribution of eBirders than the distribution of corvids.

Instead what I am on about is Australian Ravens (Corvus coronoides)  feeding on the second best sort of European Carp.  (They are dead, which improves them a fair bit, but would only get a first rank if the slob who'd caught them had put them in a compost bin rather than just chucking them on the road.)
In total there were 8 Ravens at this feast which if I had seen them flying would have made me wonder about Little Raven.

 Little Ravens don't have a bunch of hackles like this!

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

A tour of the West (part 1)

Insects from pine trees

Maslins beach rules