Feburary 4, 2011 12:30am Lyons St, East Providence RI

We were dropping my sisters off at their friends house. My mother had gone in to say hello while my brother and I preferred to wait outside. Suddenly a weird rolling call best described as a "Grrrrrrrau-Grrrrrrrrau" caught my ear. I looked in the direction the noise had come from. There was a squirrel running along the ground. I knew that squirrels could make odd noises but I had never heard one say anything like this. Then on an impulse I looked up. Overhead flew a huge Corvus (Corvus is the name for the jay and crow family). It had a wedge shaped tail, was a rich black and emitted the odd noise. The instant I saw it I knew what it was-a Common Raven!

I watched excitedly as the bird flew steadily South and then disappeared into the distance. Although I am pretty sure that I have seen ravens in Massachusetts-I have never seen one in Rhode Island. In 1992 there had only been two records of ravens in Rhode Island but now ravens are growing increasingly common-and one pair is even nesting in South Kingstown. This is the first time I have ever positively identified a Common Raven.

On the same day that we saw the Common Raven we went and adopted a puppy. We are calling him "Sir Theodore Digby Chicken Ceaser" (Theo for short). We named him after a comedy (in which Sir Digby Chicken Ceaser is the main and funniest character). It's a very appropriate name because Sir Digbys side kick is called Ginger which is the same name as my grand parents dog. You can watch some episodes of it here.


Sir Theodore Digby Chicken Ceasar

Yesterday we went for a walk at Turner Reservoir with Theo. While we were there a man pointed out a Coyote watching us from the ice. Later when I looked for the coyote again I found that a second one had joined it! It was quite a sight.