EPISODE 299 DAMAGE RAVENS DO TO ME

alan skeoch

March 30 2021

It is enough to make me cry.   The ravens.   A pair of them have built

their huge nest of corse sticks high above my  fanning mills.  Sort of hidden but

I knew they were there.   Having a pair of nesting ravens  return

year after year to set, hatch and rear their young seemed  quite an

honour.     

I hardly know they are up there.  Just the odd bit of scratching.

No hoarse raven calls.  that will come later when the babies are

near full grown.  Right now all is quiet.  Our so I thought.

Today I discovered  why they are so  quiet.  They have spent the winter

and spring months dropping great slurry turds on my prize fanning mills.

which  were hidden behind some crates  I never really looked behind

the crates  lest I disturb the ravens.   I believed ravens were intelligent

creatures…most intelligent creatures.   Wonderful  stories are 

written about ravens.  First Nations people on our west coach

consider ravens very smart…but also very wily.

“They are tricksters,” so the legends say.

“How true!”

“They have spent the winter dropping their turds  straight down

on my best fanning mills.”

They  have been quiet.  Not because they are embarrassed at their toilet functions.

They have been quietly laughing at me.  “Every time Alan comes into the drive shed

he looks up at our nest.  He never looks behind the crates.  His prize fanning mills

are steadily being filled with our crap.  And  he doesn’t know…doesn’t even suspect.

He thinks he is such a nice guy.  Giving us a place to nest.   Patronizing us.  We will

make a fool of him.  Drop another load.   Our dung looks like whitewash.  those

red fanning mills are now festooned in streaks of white…piles of white.

We have tricked him …made a fool of him.

Woody  was  quite relaxed about the situation.  He had an “It told you so” look

as he watched me me use a scraper to get the big lumps of excrement removed.

And then the  water and brush to get the steaks of white excrement from everything else.

“Alan, the ravens do not want you as a friend.  

They are bullies…they want to make you look like a fool.

And that they have achieved.”   

It took all afternoon to clean just one fanning mill.   I have five or six sitting under the raven nest.

Now I know what the First Nations people mean when they say Ravens are tricksters.  

“Never trust a raven, Alan”

Why not?”

“Because they will treat you like dirt.”

alan