On the nest

 Juno has started to sit on the nest, and for the first day she didn't come down to feed when I brought the daily meal. Siden did, though, and then flew directly to the nest to feed Juno.

Winter creatures

All humans I know consider the ever falling snow as an outrage. I mean, it's late March! The ravens wouldn't agree. Lying on the back in the powdery snow while your partner is preening you - what else is there to wish for?

//Helena

Interior decoration

A few days with nice weather, and the couple decided to go for the outdoor nest. This is what it looked like this morning. They seem quite happy with the construction and have started to focus on the lining. Old grass, dried weeds and other soft materials are of interest. I tried to supply them with various things, like hay and horse fur, but just before night fall I found the perfect lining material- small pieces of hemp string that I fluffed up.

Juno was thrilled, and picked up every single piece I offered through the mesh of the aviary. Interestingly, she seems to be solely in charge of the interior decoration - pulling away strings of hemp from Sidens beak and flies off to do her thing. How I wonder what the nest looks like from the inside.

//Helena

Breeding season

At the moment there is intense acitivity in the aviaries. Breeding season has started.
We have two couples - the top ranked siblings Siden and Juno, and Rickard and None - who has been paired up like this since they were young. It can take between 2 and 7 years for ravens to start breeding, and hopefully it will take a few more years before our ravens begin. This spring, they will become two years old, and the activity going on seems to be more of training.

As Siden is the dominant male, he and his companion Juno are the ones building a nest. And they started out on a small platform put for this particular reason. I have to bring loads of twigs so they can choose whatever twigs they find appropriate. Yesterday I brought a big pile, and this morning almost every twig was gone.

 

Last week, it was extremely windy with winds up to 20 m/s, and I felt sorry for the busy couple trying to build a nest in such an exposed spot. So I decided to build a nestbox for them. As they had already started a nest, I wasn't sure if they would be at all interested. And it wasn't the easiest task to attach the rather heavy box close to the roof, almost blown of the ladder.

The next morning I was curious to see if they had dared to approach it, and this was what I found! Busy little bees had already started on a nest, and I was happy to see that they could get some better protection from the wind.

Siden, struggeling with a particularly difficult twig.

//Helena