That explains it.

The olive green kea is a known predator of sheep & lambs in NZ, yet people are keeping them as pets.  Perhaps their keepers believe that as long as the kea is well fed it won't try to attack & eat other pets or children.  However, the kea's intense motivation to tear shit up appears to exist independently from whether the focus of its attention is even edible.

Johnny_Rotten wrote:

When I help run bird language classes for amatur naturalists we tell them to avoid attempting to interpret the behaviors of ravens, crows and jays during observational studies of bird responses to local stimuli.

Ethology prof. I worked for told me the tale of a bugger of researchers observing a murder of Corvids sliding backwards down a snowbank. After several years of unconfirmed hypotheses (parasite cleansing etc.) and general bamboozlement they decided that the silly birds might just be having fun.... It's always struck me as naive, if not christian, to assume a qualitative difference between the emotional lives of humans and others who sip at the deoxy rye. And really...without motivators, wherein lies motivation? Perhaps emotions run deeper than life. Fear, anger, despair, affection...who knows what coacervate globules felt as they swam the incipient soup.

Dmtdust wrote:

With apologies to my old (and dead) friend Snakefinges (Phil L)...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2 … 4/wildlife

Sure you knew Philip...you must have been quite the scene queen back then Dusty... Snakefinger?  I have been a fan of his and The Residents for many many years.  Our back doors shared the same space...Sycamore alley off Mission, the old home of El Ralpho studios...

For the uninitiated....

The Man in The Dark Sedan...

I have a few friends in the video...

and of course...The Residents' "Laughing Song"   

Dmtdust wrote:

WilberCuntLicker wrote:

Johnny_Rotten wrote:

When I help run bird language classes for amatur naturalists we tell them to avoid attempting to interpret the behaviors of ravens, crows and jays during observational studies of bird responses to local stimuli.

Ethology prof. I worked for told me the tale of a bugger of researchers observing a murder of Corvids sliding backwards down a snowbank. After several years of unconfirmed hypotheses (parasite cleansing etc.) and general bamboozlement they decided that the silly birds might just be having fun.... It's always struck me as naive, if not christian, to assume a qualitative difference between the emotional lives of humans and others who sip at the deoxy rye. And really...without motivators, wherein lies motivation? Perhaps emotions run deeper than life. Fear, anger, despair, affection...who knows what coacervate globules felt as they swam the incipient soup.

Poet. eh?

'taster, more likely.

WilberCuntLicker wrote:

Johnny_Rotten wrote:

When I help run bird language classes for amatur naturalists we tell them to avoid attempting to interpret the behaviors of ravens, crows and jays during observational studies of bird responses to local stimuli.

Ethology prof. I worked for told me the tale of a bugger of researchers observing a murder of Corvids sliding backwards down a snowbank. After several years of unconfirmed hypotheses (parasite cleansing etc.) and general bamboozlement they decided that the silly birds might just be having fun.... It's always struck me as naive, if not christian, to assume a qualitative difference between the emotional lives of humans and others who sip at the deoxy rye. And really...without motivators, wherein lies motivation? Perhaps emotions run deeper than life. Fear, anger, despair, affection...who knows what coacervate globules felt as they swam the incipient soup.

Ravens are abundant here in the high desert.  Aldous Huxley (yes, that Aldous Huxley) lived here for a while and wrote a children's book about them.  Of all the birds I've watched, they are the ones who most seem to appreciate their gift of flight.  I will often see them on windy days that have all other, more sensible birds grounded, hanging in the air until the wind starts to push them backward, then pull in their wings and dive to build up speed and return to their prior "hovering" station.  It's egg-stealing season for them now, and I get to watch all varieties of pissed-off birds chasing after ravens, from house sparrows, to more-determined starlings and blackbirds, mobbing mockingbirds, and hawks from sparrow hawks to rough-shouldered and redtails.

As for the idea of them going after small children, does anyone have any recipes for tempting sauces we might slather on some of the little imps who are still refusing to behave at this point in the school year?  Something in a light bearnaise, or a remoulade, perhaps...