THE RAVEN - 5/20/20


 THE RAVEN

BY: PEGGY WILLIAMS AKA Birdie of Mississippi

 

Lately I have had the Common Raven brought to my attention.  I watched an episode on National Geographic - America’s National Parks going through the Grand Canyon along the Colorado River.  One of the birds that could stand the high heat of up to 120 degrees of this desert area was a Raven.  The Osprey dived down into the Colorado River and caught a fish that he saw from over a 100 feet in the air!  He flew to the cliff side to enjoy his meal when a Raven flies down and taunts him to fight.  The Raven doesn’t really want to fight he just wants to steal the Osprey’s fish!  But, the Osprey leaves his fish to fly after the Raven in hopes of “whooping up” on him.  The Raven has excellent aerial skills and out flies the Osprey and then doubles back to scarf down the Osprey’s fish!  The narrator tells that this is normal for the Raven to be a prankster and outsmart other birds in order to take away their food.

 

Ravens are considered scavengers and they hunt as a team with other ravens using cooperative hunting skills if the game is too large for a single bird.  They eat a variety of things that you think of scavengers eating such as human garbage, rodents, worms, insects, other birds and even carrions (vultures).  They hunt as a team usually during the winter, but the rest of the year they live as a “couple” with their mate or in a small group.  National Geographic says that it is believed that Ravens mate for life with both parents taking care of their young which remain dependent on its parents for several months.

 

Most of us have read Edgar Allan Poe’s famous poem “The Raven” that is about a young man who is mourning the death of his sweetheart and a Raven visits him during the night.  The young man asks the Raven if he will see his sweetheart in the afterlife, but is told by the Raven one word…”Nevermore.” It’s a pretty dark poem but it is supposed to point us to let go and not hang onto everything you love.   

 

The Raven is also in the Bible in the story of Noah and his Ark. Forty days after the tops of the mountains became visible, Noah released a Raven from the window of the Ark “and it kept flying back and forth until the water had dried up from the earth.” Genesis 8:7.  The LORD also used the Raven to feed Elijah – I Kings 17:2-5.  “You will drink from the brook, and I have ordered the ravens to feed you there.” So Elijah did as the LORD had told him and “The ravens brought him bread and meat in the morning and bread and meat in the evening…” v6.  Interesting that God used an unclean bird to provide for Elijah.  In the Song of Solomon 5:11 – “The hair of the bridegroom was as black as a raven.” The Raven is used over 11 times in the Bible.

 

I have never seen the Raven in real life only in books and on television.  One article that I read told that you could leave your trashcan open for scavenger birds to check out its contents and you would soon see Ravens come to your yard.  I don’t think that I want to see one that badly because the article also said you would begin to see mice and rats if you did this….so I think I will be okay to look at this “bird of the air” (Matthew 6:26) in books and on television until I go out west and see them in the wild.  My photos may be viewed & “LIKED” on Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest - “Birdie of Mississippi”. E-mail: birdieofmississippi@gmail.com - Read my Blog @ http://www.birdieofmississippi.blogspot.com

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