Ravens in Hollywood

Posted by ravens at July 29th, 2009

Juvenile raven demonstrating juvenile raven behavior to bemused motorcyclist at a rest stop. Wonderful vocalizations and neophile exploration of everything in sight.

Posted by ravens at July 3rd, 2009

This is one of my local ravens – seen day-long in the vicinty of Billy Wilder Square and the pines of Lanewood Ave. – being very vocal at 8:30 a.m. I have no clue what was going on; mostly from a perch in one of the pines, but also with a couple fly-overs to the same spot on a nearby building. Raven mysteries. Sounds almost like a chimp at times. I think it may have grabbed a piece of food from the tree before flying off to Sunset Blvd, but I’m not certain.Was there more food it wanted? Was it having trouble caching? Was it trying to call its partner? RavenLanewood

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Posted by ravens at March 2nd, 2008

Just for a change, it would be fun to note where I see ravens first each day.

Today, LA marathon morning, they are making a big fuss out on Billy Wilder Square. Usually that fuss is reserved for hawks, but as this is nesting season, I think it one territorial pair fussing at an interloper (or two). The alarm was raised just outside my window, so I had a fine show for a minute or two. The three-call  vocalizing is less rapid than one hears when hawks are involved, but just as loud.  I noticed a pretty aggressive chase yesterday, two. If this is the local residents, then they would be the ones living down the street at the church, and if I can get photos uploading properly, I’ll have something to write about that, too. Question: is this competition between Runyon residents and Sunset residents?

Posted by ravens at November 25th, 2006

Late afternoon, partly cloudy and cool. Five ravens playing in the air above the shrink-wrapped high rise on one of the city’s most famous intersections. Shortly after that I caught up with two birds stopping perch for a bit on top of a pair of floodlights that overlook the arclight cinemas courtyard. They were making oo! and cluck calls. They  left via cineramadome overflight. It was pretty late and surprising to see them on city rooftops so close to roosting time. Stupidly I didn’t have my camera with me.

Posted by ravens at November 12th, 2006

Sunday on returning to the Beaudry trailhead on Verdugo’s southern flank, two ravens were hanging out on trees overlooking the catch basin, one on each side. One was making a call I hadn’t heard before – rrak rrak (not unusual) but the slowness of the call was what made it different. Then we saw a coyote emerge from the dry streambed and climb back up into the brush-covered mountainside. The ravens had just arrived there, having sclided past us while we were higher up the fire road. Maybe they’d seen the coyote down there and wanted to see if there were any chance of a snack.

Posted by ravens at October 4th, 2006

A raven just flew past my window with a chunk of something tasty in its gob, reminding me that this would be a good time to describe the local scene. There are ravens everywhere, every day. Everywhere I go in Hollywood, and everywhere in my own small corner of it. If I’m at home, their rrak-rrak-rrak is never far off. Yesterday there were four at the top of a dead pine on my street at about 6:30 a.m. My guess is they were waiting for a seagull to find some food, and then move in. Only one was vocalizing, and that repeatedly. Last Wednesday (a week ago already) a pair was waiting inside the gate of Runyon to welcome me back there after a few weeks’ absence (I had grown lazy in my constitutional, going for an easy three miles on flat ground, between home and Fairfax). One was only 8 or so feet above ground on a perch, and the other was on the ground, in spite of all the dogs and people, sidling up towards a mess of birdseed that someone had scattered. Only a couple jays and sparrows were enjoying it, but the big black bird was just too cautious to muscle in, and decided to forage instead. Later this pair flew about the mouth of the canyon and around the ridges and back. A couple others were on the heights, and there was an overflight or two.

Thursday morning I had to leave early for work, and was astounded to find a pair right in the street, not far from the curb. They didn’t stay long, and when I reached the spot, there was nothing there (or nothing left). Down at Melrose and Highland I stopped to get gas. Two ravens were marching around on the understructure of a billboard, looking into all the nooks and crannies as if on an easter egg hunt.

Sunday I went down to check on my laundry and heard a quork – when I looked up the sky was full of a raven circus, a cloud of about sixteen, circling around each other and moving slowly in the direction of Lake Hollywood. It was late in the afternoon. A couple others were near to hand and quorking *at* them, trying to warn them off, I suppose. I have come to the conclusion that there is a pair trying to lock down Billy Wilder Square as their own, but have no proof yet. And then there should be a pair that calls Iron Mountain home – perhaps even the same one. There’s enough accessible garbage around here to support a colony of ravens.

Posted by ravens at September 16th, 2006

It’s not often I spend a whole day at home here in Billy Wilder Square. With the exception of the early morning, there have been ravens in the vicinity the whole day. There has been one vocalizing loudly nearby for the past half-hour, which strikes me as unusual, unless it actually roosts nearby. The sun is setting, and ravens should be home at this time. It has been delightful to have ravens around so frequently. The other thing I’ve remarked on lately is that although there are plenty of both crows and ravens around at the same time, the crows don’t seem terribly interested in mobbing their cousins. Maybe that only tends to occur in the breeding season.

Posted by ravens at July 7th, 2006

14 ravens, many juvenile, in Elysian Park just as Bill indicated, and in spite of my sceptical reaction to his report (I assumed he was seeing crows). After leaving Dodger Stadium and making my way on foot through the vicinity, I came upon the gang hanging around some picnic tables and terrorizing ground squirrels. they all took off when a red tailed hawk flew into the area, and later reassembled on various trees. No crows in the area. Looked to me like they might be roosting there, but that will have to be investigated. It should not be surprising that an area near the river and the stadium – no doubt a big source of food, no matter how quickly they clean it up – would be a congregating point for a gang. I’ve also noted ravens leaving Hollywood and Griffith Park heading in the direction of Elysian Park.

There were lots of cool vocalizations – yawps and quorks and mews and trills and poings and knocks. a lot of the birds were perched fairly low and would be quite good subjects for video, even without a telephoto.

Posted by ravens at June 1st, 2006

Took a mid-morning hike through RC today, and was rewarded with ample observations, not least of which was the amusing awk! of a fledgling. Eventually his or her voice will change, but right now it sounded far more like a crow – even worse, like a raucous crow fledgling. Nearby were two others – sibling and parent or perhaps two parents. At least one adult anyway, to judge by quorking. Hard to see pink mouths at 20m+ distance.

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.

Posted by ravens at December 8th, 2005

Runyon Canyon was a giant raven party this morning, with up to eight ravens at a time in flight above the ridges and canyons, mostly occupied in courting behavior, so far as I could tell. Various twosomes and threesomes mostly, favoring the lower ridges and treetop-filled canyons at the border between the mountains and the dense city. A particularly romantic pair sat for awhile above the Wright house allopreening. I think today also set a record for greatest variety of vocalizations. From cooing to rruk-rruk-rruk to ro’ to female display knocking – sounds very textbook but it was great fun because they were often so close to trails.