Skywatch Friday: Raven Drops Its Pack

I was on my way home to Walkerville (elevation 6309') from the little college where I teach (elevation 5500'). It's a good hoof up the hill, with an 800 foot elevation gain in the 1&1/2 miles distance. Always a good excuse to pause for a photo of the 170-foot tall steeple of Immaculate Conception Catholic Church (a Gothic Revival structure from 1938):

And a photo of smoke rising from a National Forest Service "slash" burn in the Highland Mountains to the south:

And the silhouettes of trees near the old and now-empty Westside Reservoir:

Ravens (Corvus corax) are a common bird on the landscape of Butte, Montana. Other Montana cities have crows or magpies, but Butte has ravens. In twenty years of walking up and down the hill, I've gotten to know them pretty well. One flew over and gave a friendly "quork:"

To which I politely replied, of course. In Ravens in Winter, ethologist Bernd Heinrich quotes an Athapaskan woman: "One of the things we say to raven while we hunt is 'tseek’aal, sits’a nohaaltee’ogh,' which means ‘Grandpa, drop a pack to me.’ If the bird caws and rolls it is a sign of good luck."  Following my greeting, Raven rolled over in flight (note the photo is not upside down):

It was a good day.

Return to SkyWatch Friday