Ravens Evermore

Almost there

Upon returning south, I went with my binos to check the nest: black evermore! Couldn't see the forest for the feathers! At first I thought both raven parents must be perching with their backs to me, examining their young. But the Grog parents were to my right in the sycamore tree, agog in affection. So what I was seeing at the nest were two enormous Grog nestlings who were perching on a branch next to their nest.

From my distant balcony seat, they looked like two phantoms of the opera, swathed in black feathered capes  with a mere white outline of beak for identification (later their bills will turn completely black). Two more were resting in the nest, or at least that is what I could see. There might be more. The Grog infants are so big that they might have to take turns to sleep in their nest. The two on the branch made no effort to test their wings while I was watching. It was much the same at the El Moro nest but with only one nestling showing his new black velvet coat and white smile.

This morning I did see Sunshine doing some sample short-distance flying from the nest to another tree. No young Grog followed. Both sets of raven parents are looking rather haggard and run down, particularly the mothers. It's not hard to see why. The nestlings looked to me to be about the same size as the parents. Imagine having to feed them all and get a bite in for oneself, too. I did watch Sunshine cough up a cached pellet, various bits held together with her saliva. She had retrieved it from a palm tree, coughed it and then carried it nestward: not a rabenmutter, leaving her young, but a responsible provider.

*photo of a fledged Grog last year, courtesy of theravendiaries.com