Ravens in Hollywood

Posted by ravens at February 15th, 2009

This year, a pair of ravens on Sunset Boulevard have entered the competition for Most Interesting Site – they have constructed not one but two nests on the facade of the landmark Blessed Sacrament church in the heart of Hollywood’s entertainment district. Not only did they choose the facade, but they also have invoked the patronage of two medieval Catholic saints.

Now that it’s Nesting Season 2009, we’ll be keeping an eye on this and other sites around Los Angeles, to see if former sites are used again. It was indeed a miracle that even one fledgling survived, given the very dangerous conditions they have to contend with while growing up on one of LA’s busiest boulevards.

Posted by ravens at February 23rd, 2008

 High above the LA River and the Ventura Freeway,  with a fine view of Griffith Park’s  TravelTown and Equestrian Center, a pair of ravens have built a  seemingly precarious home on a high voltage power  line  pylon.

Posted by ravens at August 30th, 2007

Film math aig National Geographic / Good movie at National Geographic

http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/animals/video/raven_begs_scraps.html

Posted by ravens at February 21st, 2007

Fashion raven / fitheach fasantaOriginally uploaded by AlasdairFitheach.

The billboard reads “hip has found a home” but I’d call that “chic” wouldn’t you? Anyway it is about nesting season, so maybe this raven is considering a condo down the street. I’d been taking pictures of it for a few minutes, and it decided to take a closer look, flying in a circle over me at about 20 feet up, literally eyeing me up and down before returning to the billboard. The only other ravens I recall doing that live nearby in Runyon. Below, the same raven in a small pine a few yards from the billboard. It was awfully close to street level for a raven, and possibly the unusual behavior of human triggered some awareness that something strange or new was going on. It hopped three nervous neophobe hops on the billboard before flying over to take a look at me. They are used to humans paying them no notice at all here. A human actually peering at them and taking pictures has to be a novelty – something out of the ordinary in a very ordinary and predictable environment.

Posted by ravens at January 9th, 2007

Despite the furious windstorm in the Cajon Pass just before New Year’s, there they were, a pair of birds above the 210 at about 20 meters, managing to soarcle just to make sure I didn’t begin to believe that ravens stayed home during the Santa Ana Winds here. Ravens above the 210 along the Cajon wilderness and pass are pretty dependable.
Yesterday, a pair at LaBrea and Venice, alighting on telephone pole tops; and at least one deigning to land on the curb at LaBrea and Washington. Must’ve seen something very tempting.

Today, as I was waiting for a light at Mansfield and Melrose, a pair hove into view at rooftop height and glided to a stop on telephone poles behind some shops – above the alley that runs parallel to Melrose. They seem to favor both poles and alleys. I’ve got photos from the same alley at Poinsettia.

Posted by ravens at November 24th, 2005

Woke up this Thanksgiving morning with the rrak-ousness of five or six ravens chasing each other around my building. Unless that bird in the lead was a hawk… later I spied on over the empty lot next to the TraveLodge, and decided to grab the camera aned go see what might be on. Didn’t have to go far. Three ravens were perched right up in the dead Canary Island pine across the street from Ravenwood Manor.

One had a large crust with it, clearly very happy. The third was chased off by the second, but not after a good bit of winging in the I’m-a-poor-hungry-juvenile assuming-subordinate-posture mode. After a while it tried to come back, only to suffer the same banishment. The superior bird didn’t even ruff or fluff, just hopped up towards the junior, which provoked the pathetic pleading and retreat. Meanwhile, bird with crust flew over to a lush pine across the street, and proceeded to cache the treat in the dense needles of a bough. It was really exciting to see behaviors that I’d only read about till now, and to see them on my doorstep! (As usual, the photos are being developed and will appear soon).

And I thought Tim Allen in my local 7-Eleven was cool. The only thing better than this will be raven watching in Dodger Stadium when baseball season comes back around.

Posted by ravens at November 17th, 2005

Today they did the opposite – seven ravens soaring above Hollywood, south to north, roughly over LaBrea (really to the west, but drifting east as they approached Runyonwards). Late morning, hot with mostly clear skies. This was very similar to the soaring group of a dozen or so that I saw above Redlands last Saturday, soaring and doing acrobatics while traveling slowly from one place to another. I wish I had a rooftop vantage point, to see these trips as they begin.

Posted by ravens at November 4th, 2005

There are at least four ravens in this photo – honest!

Here’s a much better one:

Click on the photos to see many more from that day at Flickr. Wine lovers might be interested to see the vineyard recently established by a homeowner – it is just west of the Hollywood sign.

Posted by ravens at October 25th, 2005

The musical number that is our unofficial city anthem would have sounded slightly different if our city founders had been sticklers for taxonomic accuracy. Hollywood was alledgedly named for the large shrubs bearing bright red berries in the winter, not really holly, but toyon. They are one of the dominant species in the Santa Monicas and other hills and mountains of the coastal sage scrub climate that prevails from Los Angeles to the great inland valleys like San Bernardino. And they are apparently good for a snack, if you’re a raven and feeling a bit peckish.

Toyon (but in high desert, not Hollywood)

Posted by ravens at October 13th, 2005

Walking through Hollywood on Yom Kippur in search of ravens can’t help but remind one of the appearances of ravens in the books of the law and the prophets as carried through history by the Jewish people. As I was walking west to La Cienaga and Holloway to see if that really is a full-time raven hang out (it is), all sorts of people were streaming into the Director’s Guild and were lined up outside the Laugh Factory, where, among many other locations, the High Holy Days would be celebrated.

7:30 a.m.: under a bright blue morning sky on an already warm day, a raven lighted for a while on the usual billboard (see previous posts).
8:40 a.m. : raven returns. Even from 30 m. away, I could hear it making a soft, high-pitched ‘oo-’oo vocalization like the one I’d heard before from ravens in the same location.
10:15 a.m.: after walking from LaBrea to Fairfax with the Santa Monicas to my right and vast tracts of empty sky above, I was almost to the Griddle when I spied a raven gliding south east out of the mountains. As usual with a glide, it kept to the same line without a single flap of wing until it had passed over and out of sight. I had to run around the corner to keep it in sight, but even then it disappeared in the direction of Darbyville. At the same time, however, three ravens were then visible (I was south of Fairfax, with the Director’s Guild looming just to my west), flying quickly north. I ran back to Sunset to try to catch them with the camera, but they were moving too fast and I was having trouble with manual vs. auto focus. A short while later, I could see several ravens at the peak of a hill just east of Laurel Canyon, mobbing a pair of hawks.

11:00 a.m. LaCienega and Holloway: hawks all over Hollywood. Snapped one on the top of a pine on LaCienega. Just after it flew off, I spotted a raven flying over LaCienaga-Santa Monica Blvd. – Holloway, just as I’d hoped. As I was watching, and moving closer down the hill to the intersection, I realized the chase was on – raven vs. hawk, and then two, then three ravens escorting the hawk westwards. While ravens mob, they don’t really dive-bomb like smaller birds and crows do, but look as if they are merely seeing the slightly larger bird off. I got as many shots as I could, so this should soon be a well-illustrated post.