Let’s not forget our animal friends on this day of gluttony. Reader J. C. McLoughlin didn’t, and sent these two photos with a caption:
I append views from the kitchen window of some of the ravens who visit our corvid-table, which this Thanksgiving morning sports a fryer chicken in a wire gibbet. The chicken will be gone by this afternoon.
Man, these ravens are going to FEAST!
Wow – that’s going above and beyond!
Oops, and Happy Thanksgiving!
What, Nae Fatbaws?
I posted this at the bottom, but it disappeared. Sorry if it shows up twice.
Happy Thanksgiving!
A wonderful idea! Reminds me of Bernd Heinrich and his ravens, though I believe he gathered a great deal of roadkill for his feathered friends.
That reminded me of this news story from a couple of months ago: “Guess who’s coming to dinner? Roadkill placed on ‘sky tables’ to lure rare birds of prey” https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/aug/14/guess-whos-coming-to-dinner-roadkill-placed-on-sky-tables-to-lure-rare-birds-of-prey
Rare happy news! Thanks for sharing. It’s a nice change from the usual gloom and doom environmental stories, especially from rural UK, where most of the stories are about gamekeepers illegally poisoning and shooting birds of prey so the fat rich a-holes can shoot grouse at their leisure.
Where I live in the midwestern US, I see so much roadkill deer, possum, raccoon, raptors, I hate it but if I could take it, put it on a sky table, rather than see it mashed into the interstate…sadly I live at the very edge of the city limits. Neighbors are apparently free to burn plastic garbage but heaven forbid if I burn my wild yard for the prairie flowers I am growing!
A special comment is due to J C McLoughlin for featuring my sable avian colleagues so commendably through the fruitful results of bird-watching and excellent photography.
The corvid stock is indeed a very intelligent avian group.
May you all enjoy the rest of the week as I greet everyone here during this Thanksgiving with the grand scenery of SoundEagle in Birch Forest Landscape with Mushrooms:
https://soundeagle.files.wordpress.com/2021/04/soundeagle-in-birch-forest-landscape-with-mushrooms.jpg
Take care!
Yours sincerely,
SoundEagle
I support freeing the chickens from harm as well. They have nothing to be thankful for.
I used to provide occasional treats to a crow who lived in the gazebo in front of my house, a personable
fowl named Stanley Crowalski. He would consume some of them, and carry the others to a secret cache he maintained in the rain gutters of a neighbor’s house. Stanley has since flown the coop.
I have a pair of ravens that live around my barn, that have been here for several years. They drive any competition away, including their fledged chicks. I was surprised by the photo showing more than a pair.
They got eggs for Thanksgiving, and they will get eggs for the next two days, as we had a batch that have expired and are unusable for the restaurant.
They are a lot of fun to watch. They clomp around on the barn roof, making it sound like the place is about to fall down.
L
A single male turkey spends hours every day in my backyard, we don’t know why. He has been hanging out here for weeks now. I wonder if maybe he was kicked out of a group of up to 20 turkeys we often see. In honor of our Tom, we had veggie burgers for Thanksgiving and put out a small treat for him of a fresh apple cut into small pieces. He gobbled it up.
Please don’t feed the ravens if you live in the Mojave desert. Their population has expanded greatly due to human supplementation of water, food, and nesting sites, and they relish juvenile tortoises. Elsewhere, supplemented ravens are causing problems for other endangered species such as sage grouse, least terns, and boreal toads.
Thank you!
The following was penned with consideration for the countless people for whom there was nothing to be thankful on Thanksgiving Day — nor any other day of the year, for that matter — COVID-19 crisis or not. Not even free turkey dinner nor Macy’s grand 95th Thanksgiving Day Parade lifted their spirits. …
GRACE
Pass me the holiday turkey, peas / and the delicious stuffing flanked / by buttered potatoes with gravy / since I’ve said grace with plenty ease / for the good food received I’ve thanked / my Maker who’s found me worthy. // It seems that unlike the many of those / in the unlucky Third World nation / I’ve been found by God deserving / to not have to endure the awful woes / and the stomach wrenching starvation / suffered by them with no dinner serving. // Therefore hand over to me the corn / the cranberry sauce, fresh baked bread / since for my grub I’ve praised the Lord / yet I need not hear about those born / whose meal I’ve been granted instead / as they receive / naught of the grand hoard.