We went for a walk for the first time two weeks. Can you say cabin fever? Roger tweaked his back last weekend after shoveling a week's worth of snow from the driveway. Sunday was the first time he felt well enough to go out for a walk, and it coincided with one of those blue-sky days that simply takes your breath away. There is nothing like the blue of Sierra skies. Deep and endless.
On the Cascade ditch trail (it's a 4 mile round-trip), we got to see our first American Dipper. Unfortunately, most of the trail is in the dark woods and I couldn't take a shot without shaking the camera, while the shutter was still open for letting in whatever available light there was. I did get a very blurry and unusable shot of North America's only aquatic songbird. It surprised us that it was dipping into the human-made irrigation ditch, but it was. Interestingly, when we first started down the trail on Sunday, I wondered if American Dippers ever came to irrigation ditches. I love an answer right away, don't you?
We took the trail down to this turn-around, the big irrigation pipe that connects one ditch to another. Usually we walk the little steel walkway that runs along the side of the pipe, just to add a little bit more to the journey, but on Sunday in the interest of Roger's back, we stopped here to turn around. But before we could head back, we heard this rap rap rapping. We couldn't figure out what the sound was until we saw the crow (or RAVEN?) standing on the pipe. We stood and watched a while, enjoying the new sound. Have you ever heard this before? We hadn't, and we thought it was very cool.
I've heard that type of sound before, but would associate it more with a raven. I'm looking at that heavy bill with that fuzzy patch on top and thinking it seems more raven than crow. Is that possible? Ravens are capable of a range of bizarre sounds. When I was camped at Red Rock Canyon this autumn, there were quite a few tooling around up on the cliffs and dropping into my campsite from time to time. They made all kinds of funny sounds.
ReplyDeleteI thought this bird looked raven-like too, but when I listened to this rattle sound the crow makes, I thought it sounded so
ReplyDeletecrow-like, I just figured it had to be a crow. They do make a lot of funny sounds. I particularly liked this one.
It is fun and wonderful to come up on something like this and be able to just stop and listen! That doesn't happen much here in the city so I always enjoy your stories! Hope Rogers back is healing well. Have a great week, Robin!
ReplyDeleteSylvia
great video! I have heard that sound, but never knew it was a crow doing it. Wild. So glad Roger is getting better -- cabin fever is the pits.
ReplyDeleteThis is a fun post. I'm glad you both were able to take a nice walk, stop and listen to the crow.
ReplyDeleteglad you and Roger got to get out and about! Dippers like to dip in running water so an irrigation ditch would qualify. Crows make the knocking sound like Ravens do. Crows can make lots of noises, I found one saying MBOB over and over one day at the lake, go figure!
ReplyDeleteThat's my favorite sound that Corvids make -- although the bill does make me think it's a Raven.
ReplyDeleteI've read that crows have up to 75 distinct sounds that they make that are, apparently, understood to have specific meanings to other crows. Maybe that sound meant the crow was happy to have a sunny day.
ReplyDeleteSo glad you got to see a dipper, especially if you hadn't before. They're contagious. Just thinking about a dipper makes me kind of bob up and down on my stiff old knees.
ReplyDeleteThe crow recording you linked to does sound similar! The other thing I noticed is, that much as the bill is heavy like a raven, it doesn't seem to have the big ruff around the neck. That is usually fluffed up a bit when the raven is bobbing its head while calling. Neat video and sound!
ReplyDeleteBev--That's so funny, now I think it's a raven. I'm going to change the text on the post.
ReplyDeleteI think Bev may be right. That beak looks awfully huge. Here's a photo I took of what was definitely a crow. Your bird's bill seems longer, and the bill patch larger. Can't tell about size, but ravens are noticeably bigger than crows.
ReplyDeleteHave you read "Ravens in Winter" by Bernd Heinrich, yet? You must! You'll get an idea of the range of vocalizations a raven can make. Crows make a large variety of sounds, but they've got nothing on ravens. Have you heard the metallic gong sound ravens make? It's unbelievable!
Years ago, I was walking with my two dogs in the woods and a raven soared over us. I watched his head turning back and forth in search of food and when he saw me, he glued his eyes to us (still soaring past) and let loose with a complex stream of chittering and gurgling that had me laughing.
robin - I agree with Corax about the bill. I'd sort of have to see the bird "in person" to be sure, but ravens have a distinctive look about them. The bill is heavy and there's quite a fuzzy patch on the upper bill. The neck is thick because of the extra feathers. They make very weird sounds compared to crows - and they seem to like making repetitive noises - cronks, clicks, etc... Almost everywhere I camped on this trip, I had at least one raven, if not several, hanging about making strange noises at us, especially in the morning when we would be lying in the van watching them march around hopping on and off of everything around the campsite. I do love them so. I was going to mention Heinrich's book, so I'm glad that Corax did. It's very enjoyable, as are his other books. Raven or crow - your video clip is great fun!
ReplyDeleteI'm absolutely convinced that this is a raven. When I was shooting the little video, a woman who I did not see was waiting for me to finish so she could continue her hike. We chatted for a bit afterward, and she said that she'd heard crows make this sound and that it wasn't all that unusual.So, I just took her word, but when I looked at the photos after, I thought the beak looked so much like a raven's.
ReplyDeleteInterestingly, the woman walked on ahead of us at a very quick pace. She was on her return when we saw her again. She was the one who alerted us to the gray bird flitting about the water. She said, there's a bird up ditch that has a tail like a wren, but it's larger and gray. When we saw it we knew it was definitely not a wren, but an American Dipper.
robin - That's so funny about the Dipper Bird. I associate them with canyon streams, but I'm wondering if they are adapting to finding other habitat after so many drought years in the west. Stranger things have happened. Birds do change their hunting strategies. For example, a few winters ago, some biologist friends were alerted to several robins that were hunting for minnows at a tiny unfrozen area of a stream. They would grab minnows and smash them on the ice until they were dead, then swallow them. They had clearly adopted a hunting strategy that would allow them to find food locally rather than migrating south. How well they survived longer term is anyone's guess, but it's interesting to see how they solved the "food shortage" problem once the ice and snow arrived.
ReplyDeleteHard to say from the photo if it's a common raven or American crow. The bill looks heavy enough to be a raven, but that could be just the angle. Same for the neck feathers. The sound on the other hand is more crow-like. Ravens make a similar sound but louder. But the loudness, again, is hard to judge in absolute terms. I don't know which it is. (Glad I could help.)
ReplyDeleteWell, I heard i before- when I came here the other day and I thought it was pretty cool, too. But I was really hoping to see Hansel...
ReplyDeleteI liked listening to the song of the Dipper at the link you provided. New bird sightings are always a treat. In my family, an unidentifiable sound results in one of us shouting "quiz-bird!" and all of us wishing my sister were here to "name that tune."
ReplyDeleteOddly enough, the last three days our crows have been in a frenzy. I haven't seen them (I've only half-heartedly looked for them), but I can't escape hearing the layers upon layers of their cries in the afternoon. Gina took her camera out this afternoon when she heard the ruckus, but I don't know yet what she shot. I wish I knew what they're fussing about. Tomorrow I'll look into Crow Medicine & perhaps find out what I should be fussing about.