Ravens in Hollywood

Posted by ravens at November 3rd, 2005

I’m always about testing the notion that you can’t go out in Hollywood without ravens around. Got resounding results today. It was supposed to be a trip to Trader Joe’s and back. I took the same route south as yesterday (Orange) – Radio Recorders also hosted Nat “King” Cole and the Beach Boys, I noticed – but turned west at Willoughby. This gave me a clear view of the sky above western Hollywood (not to be confused with West Hollywood) and in that sky were four ravens. Two were doing the “express glide” thing south east-wards, and two were soarcling lazily, and then doing a bit of acrobatics. The day had begun overcast and cool, but now the marine layer was burning off, the air warming rapidly – a good day for soaring birds. The two descended, and dropped out of sight near Melrose and Poinsettia. I decided to head in their direction, and before I knew it, they had taken flight again. One of them soon stopped in a very tall palm – fan palm I think – while the other contined low soarcling over the neighborhood west of Pink’s, on LaBrea just north of Melrose. Then again both were in the air, low over LaBrea, and the trip to Trader Joe’s was forgotten. The palm-sitter mainly just vocalized for ten or so minutes, spending only a little of the time attempting to reach the tiny datelets or whatever it is this species of palm produces. Its traveling companion did not return, and finally the raven took to the air again, and flew directly back to Runyon Canyon. Later, as I neared home, I saw two ravens flying above the canyon. This may be only one observation, but I bet over time it will become evident that these are foraging trips from the hills and back again. But that may only be part of a busy raven’s day.

Posted by ravens at October 18th, 2005

Hollywood may be a mythical tinseltown to most people, but in reality it’s a place where the ultra-famous live alongside the utterly destitute, with a lot of ordinary working people in between. Lots of residents live off dumpster diving, and ravens are no exception, as my marathon raven expedition on Sunday in Griffith Park was to reveal.

A small brush fire above Fern Dell detoured me to the Vermont Ave. entrance, used for the golf course and Greek Theater, whose summer season has just ended. I had hardly arrived before I spotted ravens, and followed one to a location just outside the theater. I heard raven song as I approached, which I believe was coming from the raven in the dumpster, who emerged with a nice chunk of garlic bread.

Why the singing (the mysterious, xylophone-like sounds) just then?

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.

Posted by ravens at September 27th, 2005

Biologists Crack Code of Chickadee Song
By Elise Kleeman
DISCOVER Vol. 26 No. 10 | October 2005 | Biology & Medicine

Who would have guessed that when a chickadee opens its tiny beak, it has a lot to say? Biologists studying the alarm calls of black-capped chickadees found the bird’s songs signal not only the presence but also the size of nearby predators.

http://www.discover.com/issues/oct-05/rd/chickadee/

Posted by ravens at September 15th, 2005

I heard them before I saw them, as usual when I’m in the apartment. My street is lined with really tall Canary Island pines, popular with LA landscapers from the 1920s on, and I suspect that aside from their favorite billboards, the ravens hang out in the pines too (can’t see them, though).

Over coffee, while I was reading the letter to Gaelic learners that I get off the BBC (God bless Ruairidh MacIlleathain!), I heard the vocalization which I believe Heinrich notes as kek, kek, kek, but which I guess is the ravens’ version of caw! caw! caw! that their smaller cousins are infamous for… in any case, to me it sounds more like rawk! rawk! (this would only be appropriate in Hollywood, dude) or ra’ak, ra’ak, ra’ak (supposing a raven – Klingon connection). Kek kek kek, for me, is the defensive alarm of small wrens, not ravens. OK jays too.

In any case, before long this very vociferous raven turned up on the usual billboard (the film should be ready tomorrow, so finally my reader will see what I see). What all the alarm was about, is anyone’s guess – a hawk, some crows, who knows. Today I had a free morning and wanted to get some serious exercise in Runyon Canyon (there is a picture of that down below!) and didn’t see a single raven the whole trek. No crows, either, which brings me back to the no-go-crow zone question. Not enough to forage, or too much hassle from ravens and jays? It is increasingly weird to pop in and out of the two environments. In the city we have mockingbirds, crows, hummingbirds, pigeons, sparrows, and ravens. In the hills, and especially in the undeveloped scrub, we have jays, towhees, doves, quail, ravens. In GP there’s also a lot more wrens.

So this morning it’s just Sunset and LaBrea for the ravens, who left Runyon to the dog walkers, stroller pushers, and tourists.

Conditions: cloudy but clearing, mostly moderate, cool temps. . (Unseasonably so).

Posted by ravens at September 10th, 2005

Spent a bit of time this morning chasing ravens with my telephoto around LaBrea and Sunset. First from my apartment window, then at much closer range. They moved from one side of the street to the other, and then flew off separately, the second after some delay and interesting vocalizing (more of a coo than a quork). They ended up over at the billboard noted last Saturday, and dropped off it before I could reach the area. Once I made it over to Alta Vista and Sunset, there were a few large crows foraging, and I mistook them for the birds I was after. Only after using up the last of my shots did I notice that the ravens were in the date palms above my head.

All of this should be illustrated in detail as soon as I get the film developed. The photo below is from a test shot taken a couple days earlier, but it looks up at Runyon Canyon, where at least one pair seems to be in residence. Anyway the Santa Monicas are chock-a-block with ravens, who often come down to the flats. Maybe it’s the great ice cream at Mashti’s that attracts them.

Conditions: partly cloudy and cool.