Ravens in Hollywood

Posted by ravens at January 22nd, 2011

Not 15 minutes after our arriving at St. Brendan’s Catholic Church, Mom and Pop raven also turned up. They lighted on the steeple and had a quick look at the nest there – too exposed, apparently, to rain and owls – and then they flew around to the real nest, the messy looking pile of sticks and twigs atop the head of St Brendan in his niche on the church’s facade. Here they coo’d and made romance and began to tidy their last year’s work, very much “in the mood for love.” All the while, parishioners had gathered in the church below for a funeral, sleek wealthy Hancockers in sombre threads. Rituals of life and death for the avian and primate inhabitants of Los Angeles. Anthropology or ornithology or both? Corvus corax and Homo sapiens have lived these intertwined destinies for millennia now, so much alike, but physically so far apart.

Posted by ravens at January 21st, 2011

RinH is looking forward to the imminent nesting season. This year we’ve decided to focus on specific nesting sites, hoping to observe them through the whole season. The nest at Apple and Fairfax is the most convenient, so that will be our primary site. However, the nest at St. Brendan’s Catholic Church was so successful last year, we can’t help but visit to see if it works again this year. One question, for instance, is why is there an unused nest on the northeast side of the steeple? Was it constructed, and then rejected? If the birds are going to re-use a nest, how to they go about it? And how on earth does do the parishioners survive a nestful of raven chicks raining down poop on the church porch.

Since ravens in Hollywood and the adjacent community of Hancock Park must be very familiar with local structures, we have to tip our hat to the very entertaining Houses of Hancock Park.

Posted by ravens at April 9th, 2010

This is not the first year for this location near Playa del Rey.

Posted by ravens at March 28th, 2010

Much as expected there is every sign that the nest on the facade of Blessed Sacrament Church is in use again this season.

Posted by ravens at March 27th, 2010

Nest rebuilt and occupied in the usual pylon

Posted by ravens at March 19th, 2010

Ravens building nest on window ledge of Custom Hotel. Apparently they approve of the new manager.

Posted by ravens at March 3rd, 2010

The Billy Wilder Square ravens are still hard at work bringing twigs into the billboard above Mashti Malone’s. They’ve learned to fly into the bottom of it with a graceful arcing swoop. Impossible to see at all what exactly they are managing to contrive in there. The location doesn’t seem likely to be fledgling friendly.

Posted by ravens at March 27th, 2009

The nest on the side of the world’s largest billboard is definitely open for business. These would be the ravens in Hollywood par excellence. Finding a place to observe them from will not be terribly easy. Sure, I could hang out with the local teenagers at the corner mini-mall, but I would rather the ravens be the center of attention, not the bird geek watching them. I don’t think Kodak fancies me perched on their roof, even if I am a customer. It’s too bad The Corner is not on the right corner. I could sit with my coffee, newspaper and telephoto lens for hours.

The other problem of course is that the ravens often fly about and around Iron Mountain, in and out of view. And the nest itself is so high that I’d have to be a block east or more to have a decent view.

In other news, an upscale hotel for dogs has opened in the building at the base of Iron Mountain. A veritable animal kingdom here. It’s rare the resident of Hollywood who does not keep animals, especially dogs, since you can accessorize with dogs in a way that’s just not possible with cats.

Posted by ravens at March 25th, 2009

While hiking up on Verdugo near Mt. Tongva, passed pair of birds collecting fine stuff for nest presumed to be on west face of mountain.

Posted by ravens at March 12th, 2009

Just ran across this site, and I’m off to investigate. Prof. Hartmut Walter should read this blog, though. Urban ravens are probably pretty rare in most cities (hm… more for the Seattle to-do list) but I don’t think I ‘d call them rare in Los Angeles.