What a shock!

The shock being that this bird isn't in BigBlipYear as yet. It's so common, I guess every one in Australia thought that everyone else had blipped it. I am talking about the Australian Raven, Corvus coronoides.

It's been a yucky day - much emailing re the water pipe drama of yesterday, much making out of lists of damaged stuff, and a drizzly day anyway. So not many possibilities in the way of blipping. An image of me typing out lists is not Blip-worthy, I promise.

I was sitting in my office, and heard the Raven outside - they have a very distinctive voice, mournful really, the way it drops down the scale at the end of the call. Sort of -

m
.....m
......m
........m

In a minor key.

There were two of them out there and I just know they are looking for a possible nesting site. This is not a good idea - not in my back yard anyway. They are quite capable of taking baby birds of other species if there is nothing else on offer.

I love it when the models look over their shoulder in such a seductive way - mouth slightly open. Couldn't have directed it better if I had tried !!

Sexy!!

They are very intelligent. I have seen them flying up to our bird bath with a beak full of dry bread. They drop the bread in the water to soften it, and then they eat it.

Mr. Wiki says "The Australian Raven (Corvus coronoides) is the largest Australian member of the genus Corvus and one of five Australian species commonly known as crows. It is a more slender bird than the Common Raven of the Northern Hemisphere but is otherwise similar. It has all-black plumage, beak and legs with a white iris, as do the other Corvus members in Australia and some species from the islands to the north. It is distinguished by its prominent throat hackles and grey bases of its black feathers. It is omnivorous, has adapted well to urban environments and is a common city bird. I wouldn't disagree with that!