I heard them before I saw them, as usual when I’m in the apartment. My street is lined with really tall Canary Island pines, popular with LA landscapers from the 1920s on, and I suspect that aside from their favorite billboards, the ravens hang out in the pines too (can’t see them, though).
Over coffee, while I was reading the letter to Gaelic learners that I get off the BBC (God bless Ruairidh MacIlleathain!), I heard the vocalization which I believe Heinrich notes as kek, kek, kek, but which I guess is the ravens’ version of caw! caw! caw! that their smaller cousins are infamous for… in any case, to me it sounds more like rawk! rawk! (this would only be appropriate in Hollywood, dude) or ra’ak, ra’ak, ra’ak (supposing a raven - Klingon connection). Kek kek kek, for me, is the defensive alarm of small wrens, not ravens. OK jays too.
In any case, before long this very vociferous raven turned up on the usual billboard (the film should be ready tomorrow, so finally my reader will see what I see). What all the alarm was about, is anyone’s guess - a hawk, some crows, who knows. Today I had a free morning and wanted to get some serious exercise in Runyon Canyon (there is a picture of that down below!) and didn’t see a single raven the whole trek. No crows, either, which brings me back to the no-go-crow zone question. Not enough to forage, or too much hassle from ravens and jays? It is increasingly weird to pop in and out of the two environments. In the city we have mockingbirds, crows, hummingbirds, pigeons, sparrows, and ravens. In the hills, and especially in the undeveloped scrub, we have jays, towhees, doves, quail, ravens. In GP there’s also a lot more wrens.
So this morning it’s just Sunset and LaBrea for the ravens, who left Runyon to the dog walkers, stroller pushers, and tourists.
Conditions: cloudy but clearing, mostly moderate, cool temps. . (Unseasonably so).