This morning, we had a WHOLE lot of activity out our living room window!  Detail and her boy were back, as were Mama and the twins.  Sometimes, they’d be eating peacefully together, other times, Mama would chase them off.

Then we saw more activity in the spruce grove and realize that Hungry Girl and Barbecue had tried to come over, but they were getting chased off by Detail’s boy!

Getting photos was rather difficult, though, as the sun was shining into our living room, and there was a lot of reflection of us in the way.  I did manage to crop most of that out of this image I got with my phone.

You can actually still see my husband, and part of the book he’s reading, in the reflections. :-D

Later on, something big went flying by, and I had to check it out.  That’s when I saw a huge raven, over by our compost pile.  It didn’t stay anywhere for long, so the best I was able to get was this photo of it in one of the maples. while leaning up against the window as far as I could!

I remember, in my younger days, reading about ravens and descriptions of them.  We never had them around, so that’s all I had to go by.  It seemed to me that they were kinda like big crows.

Then I moved to Victoria, BC, and saw a raven for the first time.  I couldn’t believe how massive these things get!  And that noise they’d make.  Yikes!

Usually, the biggest birds we see are blue jays, crows, magpies and grouse, with the grouse being the biggest.  Red tail hawks are not much bigger than crows.  Once in a rare while, I’ve seen owls and eagles.

This raven?  The only birds I’ve seen locally that are bigger than this was a great horned owl and a bald eagle, many years ago.  This thing was massive, even compared to the ravens I saw on the West Coast!  They are not at all common around here.

Early this evening, we got visited again by Hungry Girl and Barbecue, for a little while.  I’m glad they came back, because they sure didn’t get a chance at the feed this morning!

Barbecue looks like he’s giving me the stink eye!

Or should I say “she.”  No sign of antler nubs!

The Re-Farmer