I’ve read a great deal about Ravens and one of the intriguing things I know about them is that they engage in sky dances with their mates. I’ve never seen any do this. Despite all the beautiful romantic behavior I’ve seen between Ravens — sharing food, nuzzling each other, and engaging in their other lovely mating rituals, I had never seen them doing their sky dance of love (wow, that sounds like a Vegas night club act, doesn’t it?).
Yesterday, I saw a pair of ravens fly high into the sky and then dive for the earth at top speed. It was amazing — literally stopped me in my tracks and took my breath away. Later in the day, I saw another pair engaged in similar behavior. So beautiful watching them chase and spin and dive and whirl and spiral in the sky.
This morning, I saw a group of Ravens flying high — clearly just playing in the air. It was so beautiful. I pulled the car over and snapped a bunch of shots. These shots are very zoomed in. That is a Coastal Redwood — the tallest trees in the world. It’s between 200 and 300 feet tall. Those birds are high up and playing in the air currents.
When I got home and looked at the photos, I realized that there was a raven sitting in the tree that the birds were flying around. Was it the Raven Queen watching her subjects perform for her pleasure? Was it a female considering the prowess of the males displaying their skills for her? I don’t have the answer but love both ideas.
mother. wife. friend. teacher. writer. reader. photographer. birder. quilter. blogger.
Liza Lee Miller 
Oh that reminds of when I visited the Tower of London. There’s a legend that if the ravens all leave the Tower, the monarchy will fall (or something like that), so a certain number of the semi-tame ravens there have their wings clipped. Unfortunately, that means that they don’t usually mate with each other, because they can’t do their mating flights. The Beefeater that was giving us the tour said that they thought the official raven keeper had been tossing them off the tower together to simulate the flight, because a couple of them had managed to mate and lay eggs.
And re your next post, I still don’t know how I would tell the difference between raven and crow, if I saw one fly past. Or how you can tell one from another when it’s printed on a t-shirt. but then, I am sooooo not a birder!
Love the slideshow and great find for sure!
I really think you need to rename your blog to “The Raven’s Nest”!
Merry Christmas to you and your family Liza!!
I agree with Lynne. “The Raven’s Nest”. That’s a wonderful slide show of your favorite bird. They must be beautiful up close.
Merry Christmas, Liza!
what wonderful photos and how lovely to see them dancing like that. I like the idea of the raven queen. We don’t see ravens often but when we were on Orkney in September we saw two.