Fledging the Loud Way

For some years, ravens have been nesting in the bull pine near my property. Yesterday, two of this year's brood attempted to fledge and ended up stranded in a tree immediately below my house for much of the day. For the entire time, a group of adult ravens hung around monitoring, protecting, and encouraging the fledgling birds as they hopped from branch to branch, testing their wings.

Here's the thing: both the newbie ravens and the adults spent the entire time cawing and croaking. The little ones often made return calls that sounded like someone thwacking short lengths of dried bamboo.

In other words, the entire event was utter cacophony.

I stepped out onto my deck several times and, to no avail, "encouraged" the young birds to fly off. Eventually, the birds in the tree flew off, towing the adults along with them.

An Adult Raven on My Fence

—Mitchell Hegman