This morning I noticed a female A Raven on the nature strip at the corner of Caley Crescent and Carnegie Crescent, both thoroughfares named for minor explorers. It was George Caley who provided us with the evidence that
the AKP should be called King’s Parrot, and Carnegie, who traveled in Western Australia much later, was killed by a poisoned arrow in Nigeria in 1900. The raven was pecking at something feathered. This was the remains of a domestic pigeon, which from the condition
and spread of feathers round about had probably been killed by a raptor early that morning. The raven ate quite a bit of the pigeon and also made 3 jaunty walks across the nature strip to cache portions of pigeon among the low tussocks and dead leaves – not
very secure hiding places and showing some confidence that I, standing a few metres away, was not someone who was going to steal the cached portions as soon as the raven turned its back. A keen-eyed observer might have noticed in the below photo a pale green
band (red arrow) on the pigeon’s leg. This is on my desk as I type. I phoned the number on it which put me in touch with tame pigeon control, Sydney. I was told the owner would be given the information about the ex-pigeon, lately of his or her stable. When
I said to pigeon control that the bird had probably been killed by a raptor, he said ‘Yes, that’s normal’.
