From: John Layton
[
Sent: Friday, October 13, 2006
9:40 PM
To: Canberrabirds
Subject: [canberrabirds] Raiders
of the lost nest
Raiders of the lost nest
Wagga
Wagga is, I suppose, a bit west of COG’s "area-of-interest",
nonetheless you may find this interesting.
Owners of
a grazing property east of Wagga, which I visit regularly, told me that during
the winter of 2004 a pair of Australian Ravens built a nest atop a tall Grey
Box tree just 60 metres from the homestead. All went well until about 25 days
later – when, more than likely, there were nestlings present – Mrs
Grazier noticed a couple of her baby chicks were missing.
One
morning she saw a raven perched on the fowl yard fence and shot it. With the
demise of one raven, its mate appeared to leave the area, as no further
activity was noticed around the nest. Interestingly, going by Michael
Lenz’s report at the recent COG meeting (Gang-gang, October 2006), Mrs Grazier
may well have taken out the male raven.
Fast-forward
to last June and Mrs Grazier-Chickenfarmer-Birdwatcher was disconcerted to see
a pair of ravens loitering in the vicinity of the old nest. Ensuing observation
confirmed they were dismantling the nest and carrying away their salvaged
sticks to a site unknown – and probably well out of the range of Mrs G’s
twenty-two.
John
Layton
