More of my Favourites of the Vermilon River. A Post to My World Tuesday.



Hugin, My favourite Raven.

 This is my second do of this post because of the snafu that blogger got us into over up loading photos to blogs. Anyway, Ravens are extraordinary birds because of their association, of course, with Poe. Perhaps this is more our N. American perspective than anything else. As these guys are associated with Viking legends and aboriginal legends much older than Poe's work. Hugin and his associate sat at the shoulder of Odin, king of the Viking gods, dispensing advice, although of a tricky nature.


Hugin in profile

 You can see from the profile that they are easy to confuse with N. Crows. The difference the most easy to spot is the the rough shaggy mane on the Raven, as shown above. The opposite shot is the same Raven. This time he is not showing his mane which leads to confusion. Ravens are larger but if you don't have a  crow to compare with it's a useless comparison.


A Loud Hugin

 Hugin is one of a flock and the noise is incredible. Hilke in one of her comments said it sounds like a crow on steroids, and that is an apt description. Ravens are incredibly intelligence in the cognitive sense. In an experiment, a perch was set up for the Raven and from it a string with loops was suspended. At the bottom of the string food was tied onto the string. Four out of five Ravens were able to pull the food up using the loops. The same test was used on polticians. Zero out of ten were able to figure the process out, although all admitted they recognized the bribe at the bottom of the string.


The Regal Raven





He's really remarkable in looks isn't he. These guys average about 31 inches in length; a crow runs about 27 inches in length.


Female RedPoll

 You can never have enough photos of RedPolls.


Female RedPoll




Female RedPoll




Male RedPoll

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