Fly Away - Common Ravens Bw

Renny Spencer

#1083 of 2115

Renny Spencer

McDonald Observatory, TX

$13.00

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Title

Fly Away - Common Ravens Bw

Artist

Renny Spencer

Medium

Photograph - Photography

Description

Two common ravens quickly fly away from me and my camera in the mountains of west Texas. Wings flapping mightily to get lift and speed. Following the fence line, leaving me to see their tail feathers.

The Davis Mountains of west Texas are home to many types of flora and fauna. There are deer, elk, antelope ( pronghorn ), aoudad ( barbary sheep), and many other types of wildlife.

https://txtbba.tamu.edu/species-accounts/common-raven/

"In Texas Common Ravens breed from 300 to 2400 m (1000- 8000 ft) in mountains and canyons and on cliffs (Oberholser 1974). In Colorado where breeding habitats were quantified, about half of nesting occurred in coniferous habitats, ranging from pinyon-juniper to spruce-fir. Cliffs, deciduous woodlands, shrub-lands and grasslands each provided around 10% of the total (Winn 1998).

In Arizona, the largest number of breeding records comes from Sonoran desert scrub (19%) followed by pinyon-juniper woodland (18%), sagebrush (7%) and Great Basin grassland with scattered pinyon and juniper (6%). The remaining records come from 32 habitat types with no habitat contributing more than 5% of the total. This broad range extends from cliffs and canyons to rural, agricultural and urban areas (Wise-Gervais 2005).

The large nest, often built atop a previous one, is constructed of tree branches, sticks, twigs and vines and is deeply hollowed.. It is thickly lined with animal hair, moss, grass and bark shreds. The outside diameter is 0.6 to 1.2 m (2-4 ft), inside diameter 30 cm (1 ft), and cup depth is 15 cm (6 in). The area around the nest is often white-washed with droppings (Harrison 1979).

The female usually lays 5-6 (range 4-7) greenish eggs (see Harrison [1979] for photo of markings). The female does most of the incubation, only at night until the clutch is complete and then also during the day for 20-25 days. The young birds leave the nest 4-7 weeks after hatching. Only one brood is raised per year (Boarman and Heinrich 1999)."

---Renny Spencer
https://rennyspencerphotography.com