Great story, Ian!  Thanks very much.

Jane
(Shoreham)

On Mon, 18 Jan 2021 09:39:15 -0500, Ian Worley <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Years ago while doing wildland surveys in remote parts of southeastern 
> Alaska I encountered three ravens on a single utility wire in a small, 
> essentially roadless, fishing village.  Ravens were everywhere, and 
> their antics were just as Maeve has described.
> 
> One bird, which I took to be a female, was perched on the wire.  The 
> other two, which I took to being males were coming and going to the 
> wire, shuffling along the wire to cozy up with the female .... who would

> skitter further down the wire.  Then one of the males took flight and 
> went through some aerobatic maneuvers overhead and then landed right by 
> the female who moved away.  The second male then took his turn and did 
> some definitely serious flips, wing-overs, spiral dives, and zooms. He 
> too landed on the wire, and she-the-audience again skittered away.
> 
> After another round or two of this, one of the males landed a couple of 
> feet from the female.  The other male had distanced several feet away.  
> The landing male was croaking away and began to rock back and forth on 
> the wire, back and forth more vigorously, then suddenly on one of the 
> rocking backwards just kept going and started spinning around the wire 
> backwards, hanging on with his feet, faster and faster.  After a few 
> more revolutions he let go, being tossed airborne from the wire in one 
> chaotic dizzy finale. He restored himself and returned to land 
> victorious by the female.  But there was only an empty wire ........ she

> had left during the performance, apparently having had enough.
> 
> Ian
> =========================================
> 
> On 1/18/2021 8:12 AM, Maeve Kim wrote:
>> One time in southeastern Oregon, a group of us watched 15 ravens
>> playing: sometimes two of them gripping talons and tumbling' sometimes
>> one climbing high and then diving straight for the ground and pulling
up
>> just in time; sometimes two or three passing a stick or a feather back
>> and forth, one dropping it, another picking it up, flying a bit and
then
>> dropping it. We watched for over a half hour, and the birds were still
>> romping when we finally left. - I think omnivores, like all the
Corvids,
>> have much more time on their hands than the birds who have to spend all
>> of every single day just getting enough food to stay alive. The
corvidae
>> have used that extra time to think, reason, problem-solve, communicate
-
>> and play!
>> Maeve Kim, Jericho Center
>>
>>> On Jan 17, 2021, at 9:44 PM, Linda Gionti <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>>>
>>> A week ago I saw something I’ve never witnessed before: 2 ravens that
>>> appeared to have their claws locked together tumbling end over end in
>>> free fall. They broke apart just above the treetops. I’d read about
>>> eagles and other raptors doing that, but didn’t know that ravens do it
>>> as well. From the little bit I’ve read it sounds like it can be either
>>> courtship or conflict… for raptors anyway. I’d be interested in
hearing
>>> whether others have seen this kind of display from ravens.
>>>
>>> Linda Gionti, Hanksville