Readers’ wildlife photographs

April 4, 2015 • 7:30 am

Reader Ed Kroc from the Vancouver, B.C. area sent some photos from the shore, and a story of his encounter with a pair of one of the world’s smartest birds, the raven.

Here are some wildlife pictures for your consideration. This is a batch from a trip to Tofino back in February.

First is a Purple Sea Star (Pisaster ochraceus) sitting just below the water’s surface in a tide pool near Tofino, BC. These guys are iconic on the Pacific Northwest coast. I always find it strange to think that this species is carnivorous, feeding mostly on barnacles and mussels.

Purple Sea Star 2
Next, a selection of shots of a Common Raven (Corvus corax) pair on Wickaninnish Beach, in Pacific Rim National Park. Winter was just ending and so this pair was out combing the beach for some decent nesting materials. My partner and I crossed their paths as we were walking the beach. We stopped and sat on a nearby log to watch their work. In the first shot, the male is wrestling an attractive stick off a beached stump.

Common Raven male
I tried tossing a stick in the general vicinity of the pair. The female was instantly intrigued and bobbed right over to the offering, examined it, then inspected us and the log we were sitting on. Her partner went about his stick collecting business, taking off a few times to bring an acceptable reinforcement back to their nest (presumably). She stayed and watched us for awhile. We tried offering a few other sticks that were in the immediate area, and each time she hopped excitedly over to the offering, inspected it, then peered back at us. This went on for several minutes.

When her partner returned again, the pair moved away from our log a bit, perching on a different piece of driftwood a few meters away. In the second shot you can see them perched together here. They cackled and gurgled at each for a bit, then the male (on the right) flew back into the forest for good. The female hopped off her perch and sidled up next to me and my partner. She then poofed her feathers out and croaked right at us, bobbing up and down arrhythmically.

Common Raven pair
I can’t be sure of course, but I don’t see how the message could have been meant for anyone other than me and my partner. The beach was deserted besides for us three, and her partner was well out of earshot by then. She croaked at us for at least a minute. Maybe she recognized we were offering sticks and so she was trying to tell us what kinds she was really looking for. Or maybe she was scolding us for offering so many crappy sticks and foolishly wasting her time. Regardless, before she finished and took off back to the forest, I snapped the portrait.

Common Raven female
Next, a colourful carpet of plant life. I love all the different varieties of moss and small succulents that grow year round on the damp rocks. No idea about the species IDs though.

Moss and succulents
And finally, a few plants in the intertidal zone of Chesterman Beach. The green grass-looking plant is Eelgrass (Zostera marina). This species is making a comeback on western Vancouver Island after many years of decline due to human activities. Standing among the eelgrass is a patch of Southern Stiff-stiped Kelp (Laminaria setchellii). Not as noticeable as the bull kelp that frequently washes up on shore, but still a fine looking algae.

Southern Stiff-stiped Kelp and Eelgrass

47 thoughts on “Readers’ wildlife photographs”

  1. I love my ravens. I have a pair that has lived around my barn for the past few years, and they are really fun to watch.

    Last year they raised a clutch of five (!) chicks. All the chicks fledged successfully, and the whole family was seen around the barn all summer long, playing, exploring, and making a racket.

    Last month I went out one morning to find one of them sitting atop my donkey, plucking his shedding undercoat out for nesting material. Both raven and donkey seemed content and happy with the tradeoff. L

    1. Ravens are so neat! We don’t have them here but we do have crows. I imagine raven chicks are really cute!

    2. Symbiosis of a curious sort perhaps. Clearly the raven benefits from the nest material. The donkey might benefit from being cooler as the weather warms…or from the pleasant company of the bird.

      1. From grooming my horse in the spring, I get the impression that the clumps of shedding hair might be itchy. I collect the hair from the various grooming implements and stick it in amongst the twigs and thorns of the mesquite trees – the birds retrieve it almost instantly.

        1. We just leave the hair in the driveway when we brush before we ride, but even when it’s not windy, it disappears fast, so I assume that the birds are getting it.

          We don’t brush too aggressively this time of year because it can still get pretty cold at night (last night down to 27F), but once the weather warms up more reliably, we groom the three horses and the donkey until the undercoats are gone and they are slick.

          But, the ravens were clearly helping themselves without waiting until the stuff was on the ground, and the donkey clearly didn’t care. L

          1. Each spring, a friend of mine would refer to the “annual lying-down of the white horse” (actually a light flea-bitten grey), after which a very large patch of shed hair was available for the birds. There’s a paddock of three white horses at the ranch where I board mine, and the patches of shed hair look almost like snow – that will have to suffice for our “snow” here, where nighttime temperatures will not dip below the mid-50s for the next 6 months at least.

  2. What beautiful pictures of the ravens and such a nice story about the encounter. Maybe she was telling you to go away, this is her beach! 🙂

    I too find it weird that starfishes are predators. It’s kind of creepy that they, well, creep along devouring things like they do. I guess we assume they are just happy little vegetarians because they look so damn cheery in their bright colours. I don’t think I’ve managed to see one in a tide pool. I kept trying when I was visiting BC but haven’t yet. Perhaps it is time for another trip out to the West coast!!

    1. I was thinking the raven was hoping for a treat. Birds that smart quickly learn that humans mean noms.

      I suspect that starfish hunting in tide pools would be more successful in the morning. I do not know, but maybe they come up from deeper water during the night.
      We knew someone who kept a marine aquarium. They regretted introducing a starfish to it b/c the damn thing ate everything that could not get away!

      1. The ravens of Pacific Rim Park are very adept at stealing peoples food. We have to be very careful to keep our eyes on it lest the Ravens make off with it. They will team up and one will distract you while the other snatches the food away. And they are very fast.

    2. I think what’s really weird about starfish being predators…is the thought of what it would mean to be preyed upon by something with barely more mobility than a rock. It’s like…if you can’t even outrun a starfish, fer chrissake….

      b&

      1. Of course many marine animals are sessile, or slow. There are lots of time lapse videos of the sea floor that show the starfish are really voracious, insatiable predators that constantly move and probe their surroundings; quickly changing direction toward prey that they detect from a single touch. It is weird, but it would also be terrifying if they were terrestrial and faster. And bigger.

        1. Attack of the Killer Starfish

          Could have been the perfect “B” horror flick from the 70’s.

          1. Their victims would have telltale marks from the tube feet. “No, nooo – the tube feet have attached … GAAAAHHHHH!!!”

        2. As a comics geek, I’ll share that the first Justice League of America story, circa 1961, involved their confrontation with a giant alien starfish. I never read that particular story, but I’ve seen the cover, featuring most of their top heroes, although Superman & Batman were strangely absent.

      2. While diving of Cape Ann we encountered a very large population of starfish. They varied in size (5cm to 30cm) and color (white pink purple) and covered a good deal of the bottom. We noticed very few sea urchins. Two years later we returned and found the tables had been turned. Very few stars and gobs of urchins. The stars eat urchins, I know. Don’t ask me how they get through the spines. Maybe they just push between and fold the spines away like parting your hair with a comb.
        This clip shows some action:

        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZKTOqEE6uj4

          1. I was thinking maybe the population instability could be due to over fishing. The Japanese fleet is said to harvest the urchins in that area. Apparently they are a prized nom in Japan.

        2. I think another part of it…it’s been almost a billion years since we shared a common ancestor with starfish. That’s about as alien as you can get and still be life from this planet.

          …now, imagine just how alien life from an entirely different biosphere would be….

          b&

          1. Certainly we might be very surprised. But, remember that convergence is a very significant factor in evolutionary trajectory. Think of the mirroring of wolves with the marsupials in Australia – the Tasmanian wolf. The similarity between dolphins and fish. If the alien biosphere we encountered was anything like the conditions on earth, we just might find something similar to starfish and urchins.

          2. Yes — apex predators in large deep watery environments will be torpedo-shaped, like a dolphin or a tuna or a shark or a squid. Apex predators on land will likely have bilateral symmetry and jointed limbs. There will be eyes…but, even so…the aquatic apex predators are going to be even weirder than squid….

            b&

  3. The ravens are fascinating, and I love the sculptural nature of the succulents and the kelp in the photos. Thanks for sharing!

  4. A raven here likes to play with one of my d*gs. The other day the raven hopped down onto the ground in front of her and, when the she chased it, it flew along the ground about a half metre above the ground and half metre in front of the d*g. The idiot d*g ran along after it for the longest time until she tripped on some hidden log or something and tumbled into the brush. The raven flew off laughing.

  5. They are simply wonderful birds. And so clever 😉
    We have quite a lot of them around our campus and I always enjoy their shenanigans when I go for the noms at the local university canteen.

    Just last week I noticed that a pair has build its nest at the top of a tree next to our building. It’s more or less in front of my window but I can’t peek inside since it’s just a tad higher than my vantage point at my desk.
    But fortunately our institute isn’t at the top floor of the building so maybe I can sneak upstairs and take a few photos.

  6. Great pics Ed. I’m with Mark above – I think she wanted food, and was telling you off for getting her hopes up with sticks, when all birds know humans mean free food. 🙂

    2. Would it be wrong to suspect that, having accepted payment in nesting material, and with her mate out of the way, she was up for a bit of quid pro quo?

  7. Lovely pics. Thanks to reading so much about them via Bernd Heinrich, I am desperate to actually see them (we only have crows and jays).

    also nice to see a live Pisaster ochraceus for a change, rather than “melted” ones. Has the sea star wasting syndrome hit your area hard?

    1. I think the sea stars in the Salish Sea have been particularly affected by the wasting disease. The ones on the open Pacific side of Vancouver Island have fared a bit better though, as far as I know.

  8. Beautiful shots, Ed. Love the starfish and succulents! Hope to get back to Tofino some time when visiting my son in Whistler.

    1. I love the starfish and the kelp picture, but that closeup of the raven is amazing.

  9. One of my favourite spots in the Pacific Rim Park is the Shore Pine bog trail. It’s highly acidic and the trees and bushes are stunted. The pine trees are diminutive. The bog cranberry is often just a few leaves with a single berry. It’s the only place on the Island that I’ve been able to find carnivorous sundew plants. They too are tiny stunted things about the size of a quarter in total.

  10. Great photos today. It seems we are all in agreement here that Ravens are terrific birds. Last summer I had a few dying Hemlocks felled and a Raven decided it didn’t want a specific Hemlock cut down. It sat on the very top limb cawing at the lumberjack for 5 minutes or so. It flew off before the tree fell, but it was a hilarious sight. That Raven was pissed off that someone was chopping down one of its trees.

    That last photo of the kelp is captivating.

  12. Gorgeous photos of the ravens – and in a really nice setting/story, too. What more could one wish for to go along with morning coffee, black as a raven? 🙂

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