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Hi Jean,
Little Ravens can be difficult to differentiate from
Australians. The pink gape skin indicates young birds as you say, and in my
experience the call of a young Australian Raven is not dissimilar to that of a
Little Raven rather than the full-blown wailing call typical of an Australian
Raven -something to be aware of and cautious about in making
identifications. It's also possible for Australian Ravens to aggregate,
particularly if the attraction is a good and opportunistic feeding situation.
Having said that, there's no reason your birds couldn't have
been Little Ravens either!
cheers,
Harvey
The river is awesome and scary, running very fast.
Water has been close to the cycle path and over it in one place.
There was no sign of previous nests since my last visit on 6
February. The landscape of the river is very much changed, especially the
low branching areas that hung in previous calm.
Good news is that I counted 14 Darters. Some
were drying wings while some others were flopping about in family groups in the
eddies from the river.
8 Little Pied Cormorants were mostly perched in the
vicinity of others on dead branches above the rushing water.
4 small Dollarbirds were perched high on dead trees in
different locations.
More than 30 Ravens were scavenging among the
beaten-down grass on the cycle path side of the river. From their number
and calls I would guess most them to be Little Ravens, many of which had pinkish
skin around the gape area. Their behaviour was also a bit weird, as for young
birds.
Other birds in this area included, 1 Speckled Warbler, Dusky
Woodswallows, 1 Double-bared Finch, 1 Grey Fantail with pale rufous underbelly,
1 Yellow-faced Honeyeater.
Further on past the Scrivener Dam below the Aboriginal
Art Gallery were 55 or more Tree Martins perched in the same tree,
brownish from the muddy water. White-plumed Honeyeaters and 1 White-browed Scrub
Wren.
My journey continued around Lake Burley Griffin and back to
the RSPCA car park. Darters were perched drying wings singly in various
places on the eastern side of the lake, a group of 5 near the boat
shed.
Lovely to be out after the rain!
Jean
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