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Blessed Sacrament Church: there are two nests, and ambivalent birds. On Oscar Sunday, they were adding small twigs to the nest on St. Thomas Aquinas. Both birds were doing this – (I am pretty sure that I’ve read in Heinrich that the building activity was divided by sex, but this didn’t seem to be the case with these birds. But the nests were mostly constructed, being left over from last season.) The following Sunday, two birds were adding soft material to the nest on top of St. Catherine of Siena. I’m not going to go so far as to assume these are the same birds, because I’ve also seen a lot of competition this year. This is one of the nests that produced at least one fledgling.

Iron Mountain: this Hollywood icon is now a site of contest. Last Friday I observed two birds visiting the nest (the highest above ground that I know of). Yesterday (also Friday) I observed one bird alighting on the nest, to be followed and chased away by another. Just before that incident, not far away (Fountain and Orange) I had seen two ravens in hot pursuit of a third, in the direction away from Iron Mountain. (I’m sure this building must have a proper name, I’ll have to find out what it is).

The Apple Street Ravens: at Fairfax and Apple, in a power line pylon. On my first visit I did not see a nest, but did find the pair of ravens foraging in the remains of a sub sandwich. Happily I had the camera with me. Driving past yesterday, I saw a nest in the pylon, on the opposite side from its location last year. This is near a drainage channel, the freeway, a large DWP sub station, and a small public park, but not many restaurants. Still, I suspect there is plenty of food. This is one of the nests that produced at least one fledgling.

The Del Ravens: I have seen a pair of ravens frequenting the billboard that was the site of last year’s nest. There is also a pair of ravens frequenting a nest on the side of a bank building halfway between Lincoln and Pershing. A pair of ravens also likes to sit on a billboard off the 90 freeway, overlooking some of the Ballona Wetlands, very close to Ballona Creek itself. Are they all the same ravens?

Billy Wilder Square: this week I observed a raven beneath a billboard here with a large twig in its beak, so once again there may be an effort on the part of yet another pair to do something with that location. This may be out of desperation due to the proximity to Blessed Sacrament, Runyon, and Iron Mountain. It may simply be that the Blessed Sacrament ravens are keeping all comers out of the Iron Mountain site.

Runyon Canyon: need to visit. The tree is very dense, and the nest is never actually visible.

Griffith Park: have not seen any nests or activity yet. The massive roost there may be a factor?

Baldwin Hills: stopped for cheap gas at Slauson and Labrea, and while I was filling the tank, a raven appeared overhead with a twig in its beak. Took photos. No idea where it went or where it may be living. Frequently see a pair of ravens there while on the way to work or back. Area is south of the zone in which the Apple Street ravens are nesting, and probably they share a border.

Originally uploaded by AlasdairFitheach.

This is a rare glimpse of mid-afternoon foraging on the ground by a pair of Hollywood ravens. The parking lot was devoid of humans, and the gulls had already arrived. Ravens seem willing to move in on food if other birds are there already and there are not too many people around. Whatever the birds had found, there wasn’t much of it left. Previous to this , the pair of ravens had been investigating a billboard full of pigeons – in the other photo one can be seen on top; the second was inside having a look around. Pigeon eggs? Or a cached bit of whatever was in the parking lot? I have seen what may be caching in billboards, and know nothing about pigeon reproduction, so I think the caching is more likely.

It was a warm, dry, sunny day. Previously I’d seen a raven soaring above Hollywood and Highland at around 150 m, and two pair soarcling lower over roughly Hollywood and Cahuenga. I am becoming pretty convinced that ravens are more likely to be found along Sunset Blvd. in the afternoon and evening. This was also the second time I’ve observed a pair of ravens at this billboard.

When I got to the movies (Fairfax and Beverly) what else would be there but a pair of ravens, now on the theater, now on a TV dish, now on a bank. That one had a beak that meant business.

Off to the farmer’s market to kill time before the movie, and watch the Dodgers lose, and lose really well, to the Mets. Decided to scope out the top of the massive parking garage at the Grove. With a view like that, I might be able to take in some commuting ravens at the end of the day. No sooner did I get up there, watching a few crows pass over Maggiano’s cheap essential scenery below, than I turned and found two ravens flying right over and past me – a few meters away before they zoomed off back to Beverly.

Finding ravens wherever you go in Hollywood must mean that people and ravens go to the same places. There aren’t really that many ravens here. It’s not hard to see the concentration of dumpsters and other waste around busy intersections. And then there are the pigeons. Do they leave eggs all over the place? I’ll have to find out. Refuse management in the alleys off Beverly and Fairfax is not very good. There are plenty of restaurants. It would be interesting to correlate restaurant locations and raven visit frequency.

None of this would explain why they always seem to meet on top of parking garages on the very rare occasions I visit them. Well, 2 for 4 anyway. Not really significant. But fun.

On my way up the west ridge, I saw a lot of the now-familiar barrel roll plus quork-quork-quork. This is where I get anxious to have a video camera. Is it frolicking, or something more practical? It seems apart from other acrobatics and frolics. But only a lot of data captured on video with metadata will really allow analysis of the same events by many minds.

Got poison oak, too. But not badly.

Toddled over to Trader Joe’s, which is across the street from the movie studios built by Fairbanks and Pickford, and which are still in service. I decided to have a cup of green tea at a cafe in the little shopping center. After 10-15 minutes, soarcling ravens appeared low to south, moving over The Lot, and then drifting north as they gained altitude rapidly. I can only estimate that they may have been almost twice as high as Cloud’s Rest by the time they decided to bear north, and they must have been over Mt. Cahuenga when they finally vanished from sight. This was interesting, because I’d been guessing they would return more directly to Runyon.

This and further sightings up and down LaBrea leave me with ever more curiosity about ravens in the flats – visitors? inhabitants? do they all leave in the middle of the day?

Walk up to and through Runyon. As usual, ravens appear after a few minutes observation, circling a high rise and alighting on its large TV aerial. This is 7035 Hollywood Boulevard, “The Hollywood Versailles.” They remained there until I had reached the first overlook (east ridge), so for nearly 20 minutes. While I was climbing the ridge, two other ravens appeared above Clouds Rest directly above, shooing a hawk away. During the hike up the ridge, I noted several other ravens, in twos or threes only, over the Cahuenga Pass in the Hollywood Bowl area (do music-loving ravens roost there? do they pick up new tunes?). Shortly after that, two other birds overflew the park, heading due east.

I recently noticed the light aircraft some biologists are using to join the Monarch Butterflies and whooping cranes on their migration. Wouldn’t that be a gas! Be a fun way to travel around the GP. Bet the ravens would not be amused.