The Raven’s Song or Respect and Disrespect

thefootloosescribbler

While out hiking this morning, I heard a metallic sound and wondered if it was coming from some nearby construction site. But as I walked down the trail toward a large open barn, I realized the sound was coming from inside it. Quietly I walked into the barn and began to look around. The sound stopped, but I waited patiently. After a minute I spotted a raven up in the rafters. It saw me looking at it, so I backed away to the side and pretended I didn’t care. A minute later it made the same metallic popping sound I heard earlier.

I stood quietly and filmed it with my iphone. The raven’s popping sound was more like the sound pickleballs make when being struck, but with a completely different pattern. It had a specific rhythm that the raven repeated many times.

At first I thought this bird in the rafters was a crow; it looked so small compared to a second raven that was scavenging for crumbs on the ground. But that was an optical illusion. (When I got home and studied my video, I realized my mistake.) Regardless, as the raven made clacking sounds up among the beams, I thought it looked like a bird who simply enjoyed making music. The raven even broke up its rhythmic phrasing with a musical interlude, before returning to its original beat: an A-B-A form without standard measures. I was impressed!

Then two old men came along, loudly wondering what I was looking at and if it was something amazing like an owl. I left the raven so I wouldn’t disturb it by shouting, and walked toward the men. I told them (mistakenly) it was a crow, making a really cool song.

“I hate crows,” proclaimed one old man to the other.

“But this one is making a really cool song,” I repeated.

They ignored me and strode into the barn.

A few seconds later I heard the same old man aggressively “cawing” to this little raven, who a moment before had been happily singing. Of course the raven cawed fiercely in return.

“They get on your lawn and roof and mock you!” the old man yelled.

You think??

“What an asshole,” I thought, as I walked away. “Thinks he knows everything and can’t figure out why the crows hate him.”

Oh well. As I related this story to a senior-citizen birder, she shook her head and said to me, “Oh, he’s got a miserable life and can’t step back to enjoy something nice.” True. But I guess the old man served a purpose. Now he’s part of this story: Respect and Disrespect.

Too bad he missed the wonder of the raven’s song.