Chris - One of most interesting things I’ve
heard in years. Nil return on the pebble-snatching, but Peter might be
interested in this scene I came across some time ago. G
From: Chris Davey
[
Sent: Thursday, 15 April 2010 7:51 PM
To:
Cc:
Subject: [canberrabirds] Caching by Australian ravens
Hi,
I have been asked by Peter to post the message below. Contact him through
the telephone number provided or through his email (see above).
Australian Ravens are known to cache food (see HANZAB vol
7A) but for the past few days a group of ravens has been removing small white
pebbles from flowerpots in our garden. We live in Belconnen not far from
Townsend Place.
These
smooth white stones (used mainly for decorative purposes in our flowerpots) are
being removed and most often buried nearby. It seems that it is a family party
of ravens that is responsible for this strange behaviour with two adults and
four fully grown young birds being the culprits. They have persisted with this
tiresome behaviour for several days now and have in that time shifted a
remarkably large number of white pebbles - I suspect that well over 50 and
probably more like 100 stones have disappeared! I have occasionally seen
birds fly off carrying a pebble but I suspect that most stones are cached
within a short distance of the house. A brief search located many within 50m of
the flowerpots.
Has
anyone else seen this sort of behaviour? Not wishing to release a stream
of 'ravens-and-golf-balls' anecdotes I would, however, be interested in
anything similar to my observations and therefore I thought it worth sharing
them with others. I attach some photographs of the cached stones showing two
half buried pebbles with a 50 cents coin, a burial site and the pebble at this
site after exposure.
--
Peter Fullagar & Helen Topor
1/11 Joy Cummings Place
Belconnen
ACT 2617
Australia
(02) 62 514 672
