Ravens Like to Wind-Surf!

Here's another story about ravens from John Marzluff's book, "Gifts of the Crow":

"A hefty wind assaulted the cliff wall to produce a powerful late afternoon updraft. Above a scenic viewpoint in Colorado's Rocky Mountain National Park, geysers of air call like sirens to ravens, as big waves beckon to surfers. Neither ravens nor humans can resist the challenge, fun, and celebration that is powered by nature's energetic breath. Ravens, dive, dip, chase, roll, tumble, somersault, and shout as they ride the wind. The stronger the wind the better. Rarely, if ever, do they hunker down and wait for the calm.

"On this windy October day in 1999, a group of eight ravens took their practice to a more sophisticated level and surfed the gale, gripping quarter-inch thin, concave arcs of tree bark in their feet. Pairs of birds spread their wings and launched into the air. Without flapping, the birds used their legs to angle their inch-and-a-half-wide by six-inch-long bark surfboards into the wind so that they soared, then dived, slipped this way and then that. Each bird hung all eight of its toes off its board and maneuvered it perpendicular to its body, like a snowboarder slows a too-rapid descent. The surfers rose to fifty feet above the overlook, rarely higher. Oblivious of the human onlookers below, one pair surfed while the others rallied and chased, trying to steal the boards and take their turns at the fun.

"For an hour the games mesmerized Emilie and George Rankin. Then the birds flew en masse down the mountain, to the valley, and likely to a safe night roost. Observing the ravens' surfing party was a highlight of the Rankins' autumn trip and remained an indelible memory a decade and a half later!"

Photo: A raven talks on a sandstone formation, Arches National Park, UT, April 20, 2013