Have you ever seen a Raven mad!!!!

     I haven't been able to do another egg test yet because of all the rain we are having here in Vermont.  BUT something did happen that amazed me.  I have finally seen George and Gracie's baby.  They only had one this year.  I don't know what happened because Ravens will lay anywhere between 3 to 7 eggs.  George and Gracie have only been able to produce 2 at one time.  This troubles me!  I'm so afraid that the construction near their nesting site may have been a factor.  We will never know.
    Knowing that George and Gracie have this one precious little baby I'm sure you can imagine how protective they are.  I did get a photo of George and the baby in flight.  Its far away, but George is the higher bird and the baby is lower.  You can see the difference in size from the baby to George.  He has a lot of growing up to do to fill those wings!!!!.

I first saw the baby with George and Gracie the other day.  They were in the road by the cow pasture.  It took me completely by surprise.  I slowed right down.  They quickly got the baby in a tree. Gracie took off, but George stayed with the baby.  I rolled down my window and said hello to George.  He responded by clamping his beak.  I said hello to the baby and it cocked its head at me.  A new family member! How exciting.  Once baby raven are out of the nest they stay with their parents for 6 months.  So this should give me ample time to get a photo in.  I haven't named the baby yet I need to see its personality.  I can tell you though that this baby is not nearly as noisy as the two from last year.  I'm assuming its because it has no competition.

With all of this information. You will find this funny and amazing!  Yesterday I fed George and Gracie their food.  They got some roast beef, eggs, and meatloaf.  Surprisingly they didn't eat the meatloaf.  The Blue jays helped themselves though!  They couldn't get enough of it.  Gracie came to the feeding station more than George did.  Now that the baby is out of the nest George is going to be extremely protective.  Gracie gets to relax some.  They acted this way last year with the other two babies.  Its a nice partnership that George and Gracie have!

Back to my story.  George had been pretty vocal most of the morning.  Sometimes he called me, other times he was looking for Gracie or he would do flybys with the baby in tow.  But what really got me was I had finished all of my chores.  I went into the house and took my spot in the dining room to wait and take photos of George and family.  

All of a sudden George and Gracie start vocalizing like you wouldn't believe.  All sorts of different sounds were coming from them.  They clearly were not happy.  It wasn't until I saw Gracie flying around in tight circles that I noticed who she mad at.

That's right!  That naughty boy Zack had wondered to close to the Ravens and Gracie was telling him under no uncertain terms he was not welcomed.  Now I didn't see Zack until I paid attention to Gracie.  And it wasn't until she perched that I saw Zack running for his life into the goose pen.  Here are the photos of how she was looking at him and the end result.

                                       
She landed on this branch first.  I followed her line of sight and saw Zack running for his life into the goose pen.

At that point Zack was inside the goose pen.  Zack moved so fast that I wasn't able to get a shot of him going into the pen.  Then she moved down one more branch.

She kept her eye on him very very well.  She realized that she couldn't get a good look from that vantage point so she went to the fence.  There she could get a "birds eye view".

Look how mad she is!!!!!

Gracie realized that Zack would probably come out the other door.  Which he did and she was right there to let him know it wasn't ok for him to be around her baby!

Zack even thought he would try to talk some sense into her, but she wasn't having any of it.  At that point I hollered for Zack and he welcomed the get away.  Gracie watched him run to the house and make his way through the window before she left!  She even gave a Victory wing spread and then went back to George and the baby.

Within a few moments George came by and took the other egg.

Then Gracie came back after a little while and tried her hand at some roast beef and so did George!

Petite little Gracie!

Big Burly George.  

Sometimes its hard to tell them apart.  Its all in how they move and their feathers when they either land or fly off.  George has one of his wing feathers missing and Gracie's tail feathers are ruined because of the egg setting.

I wonder if Zack has learned not to mess with the Ravens?  I guess we shall see!  

Thanks for stopping by George: The Old Silo Raven!

George and I appreciate it!