The Thanksgiving holiday got off to a bright, sunny start as ravens filled the skies over Griffith Park to welcome the First Annual Inter-blog Turkey Day Raven Walk. Beakspeak and Ravens in Hollywood joined forces to survey the holiday activities of this all-American bird, which is probably giving thanks for the abundant anthropogenic resources which have allowed them to live in great luxury for the last fifty or so years.
Taking up a position on a ridge to the southwest of Mt. Hollywood, just off Vista del Valle Drive and below Captain’s Roost, the intrepid birders observed seemingly unending streams of ravens in the air, and Hollywood sign-seeking tourists and locals on the ground. Ravens were seen in pairs and in groups, traversing the park at all altitudes, sometimes ignoring raptors and sometimes annoying them. Aerial acrobatics and even chases were observed (indicating the presence of interlopers?). Although they occasionally alighted on a rock or water tank, ravens spent most of the morning in flight around the ridges, treetops, and mountain tops of LA’s most accessible wilderness. It was a bit like being at the center of a merry-go-round of ravens. This is the first time I’ve not marched around until finding them, and it certainly proved you don’t need to do anything but show up in the park to mingle with America’s cleverest avian characters. In fact, as I drove in that morning, one was perched on a branch above the road.