[ExI] The Magpie Whisperer

[BillK]

On Tue, 22 Jun 2021 at 19:51, Stuart LaForge via extropy-chat
<extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:
>
>
> Quoting Spike:
>
> > Cool, thanks BillK!
> >
> > We have ravens around here which do things like this: find a person
> > they perceive as sympathetic and hang around in their yard.  They
> > somehow perceive things like that.  They fight and play too, more
> > than any mammal species I know other than humans.
> > spike
>
> There are some ravens that live or hang out near my work. A few months
> ago, I saw one of the ravens do something pretty amazing. I was in the
> parking lot watching a large hawk that was lazily circling high
> overhead just riding the thermals presumably on the look out for prey.
> I then noticed another bird that I was shocked to see was a raven
> flying higher than I have ever seen a raven fly, making a beeline
> toward the hawk.
>
> The hawk, legendary for the acuity of its vision, was completely
> oblivious of this raven approaching him. It was then that I realized
> that the raven had climbed to an altitude higher than the hawk off in
> the distance somewhere, and was now sneaking up on the hawk from above
> while the hawk was scanning the ground.
>
> When the raven hit the hawk beak first, I noticed the raven and the
> hawk were of similar size, but the hawk had no idea what was
> happening. It tumbled in the air a few times and then flapped
> frantically to get away from the raven. The raven chased it for a
> while, but the hawk who did not want any part of that raven.
>
> Ravens are definitely a top-tier bird.
>
> Stuart LaForge
> _______________________________________________

Copied that technique from Spitfire pilots in the Battle of Britain WWII!

BillK