Outsmarting the Ravens

One of the most difficult birds to photograph up close where I live are the Ravens. Some people seem to have Ravens that are almost pets. Not me! All the ones around my house are as skittish as can be. If you even show your face in the window they are gone in a wing beat. Yesterday when I was in the photoblind I could hear the Ravens circling the blind in the trees. A pair of them were chortling and gurgling and talking back and forth. You could almost hear them thinking, "Is it safe to go down there and feed?" Finally after what seemed an eternity with a whoosh of wing beats one of them crashed down onto one of the perches I had set up for a much, much smaller bird. The perch collapsed and the raven took off again and circled and floated down on top of the platform feeder. A much sturdier landing place. It looked around suspiciously for several minutes before taking a small tentative peck at some seed. It would then lift its head and swallow then, look around some more and take another small bite. Each time it lowered its head I would slowly move my camera into position and focus a little bit at a time. The main problem I had was that I was set up for photographing small birds at close range. I had a huge Raven less than eight feet away. The only thing I could photograph was its' head.Beggars can't be choosers so that is what I photographed.Here are my Raven mug shots. They really do have a pretty cool looking head. God's precious love and blessings to all, chris