Ravens, the hunter's eye in the sky?

Somewhere there's a convocation of ravens at an emergency meeting. The chair-raven is announcing that after 100s of years it appears that a few of those hairless apes are finally catching on.
 
Suka said:
If a leaf falls in the forest the raven will see it, the bear will smell it, and the moose will hear it.

Thus endeth today's lesson. :)
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not quite, the hunter will act upon the raven's signal and bag a fine score to take home and leave a supreme treat for the raven's banquet.
Amen! Let us all now have a stiff shot and eat! Thank thee dear Lord.
 
I have been learning pretty quickly out here on the prairies that you will often see Magpies and Ravens following the coyotes around. They tipped me off last time out on one working my way while calling. Watched a Raven follow it and hover over it low as it moused its way along in my direction. Best part was I got the yote!
 
Grizzly Adams said:
I'm still trying to figure out what attracts Whiskey Jacks. :) Never takes long for them to show up.

Grizz
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Smoke from a winters campfire never fails to attract them.
I grew up in the northerly bush country of Saskatchewan. We could walk in the bush all morning and never see a whiskey jack. But when we stopped and lit a campfire they would be there before you even got started eating your lunch. It never failed and anyone you talked to who was in the bush would tell you the same story.
 
Dogleg said:
I believe that a raven is smart enough to do it. Trouble is I also believe that they are smart enough to know that nobody is listening to them. For learned behavior to develope it would have to pay off once in a while.

Some people do seem to be genetically incapable of going past a gutpile without looking at it, and I suppose that ravens could have deduced from that that people are following them around. Other predators are definitely attracted to the circling ravens, I've called coyotes using only raven sounds. Given eons, the birds could have made the connection between attracting predators and getting fed. Alternately, given a great deal of time the Indians could have just seen the makings of a good story.

Its interesting to think about, even if I think that they are likely just already on a food source.

In an unrelated note; has anyone else noticed that when there's ravens, crows or magpies there is often a gut-pile, but when there's an eagle in the mix there's usually some red meat involved? I've seen that one over and over, whether its lost deer, or shot coyotes. You can make money betting on that one.
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you would have lost said money this weekend as there was an eagle mix with the other scavengers my kills gut pile no red meat.
 
On a couple of occasions I've seen ravens mobbed up causing a raucus, following small groups of elk around. Also seen them do it with black bears.

I don't think they're doing it to send me or other hunters a message. It's just something they do. They are worth keeping an eye on.
 
They were likely already circling a gut pile from the day or two before.

How old is this young guy in the group? If he isn't a toddler shouldn't he know what a raven is? :/
 
Mattones said:
They were likely already circling a gut pile from the day or two before.

How old is this young guy in the group? If he isn't a toddler shouldn't he know what a raven is? :/
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there was no gut pile. The young fella is 12 yrs old and was on his first hunt. He is also a "city boy";)!
 
On one of my farms there's a couple spots where the ravens like circling on the edge of a valley. I don't know how many times I've walked over to see what was dead, or if there was poaching going on but there is never anything there. They might just like the up-draft there. Crows seem to like it in the summer too. And no, there isn't an owl hiding in the sagebrush.
 
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