Raven Babes

Julian and I set out on a bike adventure yesterday to seek out a nest of ravens, which we already knew were there. This post is dedicated to all those people out there who say there is no such thing as an ugly baby. 

Ravens can be readily differentiated from crows by sound, but when you cannot hear them to compare, the size of the raven's overwhelming beak speaks for itself. They are very smart birds that are communal when young, and monogamous pairs defend year-round territories as adults. Ravens also are known for coexisting well with humans and have an interesting tendency to get where they are going by flying the path of roadways instead of "as the crow flies" in a straight line from point A to point B. 

This pair of ravens is a continuing pair that nests on the pylons underneath the historic High Bridge. The nest is best accessed from the Camp Paradise access point and hold four babies. They will leave the nest between five and seven weeks of age. 

We rode our bikes down to the bottom of the bridge to the banks of the Appomattox River. You can see from my pictures that the original pylons from the Civil War era bridge still stand.