Egg-time!

Juno has been in and out of the nest for some days now, but most of the time she and Siden have spent basking in the sun, chasing off intruders or snuggling. But yesterday the periods in the nest grew longer, and now it seems as she is there to stay. So for this year we note March 19th, last year; March 10th and 2013; March 22nd.

One peculiar detail about the nest is the blue string hanging out. I have seen that on several wild nests as well, and when I looked at the picure from last year....

I take it, that it is blue string for luck!

//Helena

New interior

While the ravens are busy courting and building, we take the opportunity to refresh the interior of the aviaries. After the rainy winter, the ground is a muddy mess, and even if the ravens seem to mind less than we do, they are happy about the change. So we ordered a few tons of gravel and a lorry filled with wood chips and rolled up our sleeves.

First, fabric to keep the gravel from sinking and the weed from growing, and then 15 cm of wood chips. The long runway and the experiment room are especially important to keep clean from nettles and grass, since the ravens often cache objects that are part of different experiments. And trying to find these objects in the grass is a bit like finding a needle in a haystack...now we only have to find the needle in the wood chips.

The ravens went crazy over the the wood chips, and started digging ferociously. And of course, they soon learned that there was fabric in the bottom...which in typical crow-bird-way suddenly turned into the most desirable thing.

But when I brought the super-scary-black-camera the photos ended up like this.

//Helena

Sneak peek

The nest box from below.

Siden and Juno has courted each other for several weeks now, but they haven't been particularly interested in the new nest box. Even so, I have provided them with different kind of twigs, if they should feel like trying out the new spot.

So, for the last few days the activity has gone from trying out the odd twig to intense nest construction. It seems as if building the base take the longest time, while forming the middle and top parts goes quicker. Or at least with a higher frequency. Yesterday I went over our neighbour to get some thinner, yet tough, twigs and Siden and Juno just went crazy - spending the whole afternoon carrying twigs to the box, and arranging them inside.

From below, it doesn't really look like anything more than a pile of twigs, and every year I wonder what it looks like from above. So tonight, when Siden and Juno perched outside in the dark aviary, I decided to sneak up the ladder with a camera. The ladder has been standing there ever since I built the new box, but I haven't climbed it since breeding season started. To say that they don't want you to get close to their nest is a grave understatement, and as I had left the light on, they could come inside at any time to see what was going on. I really didn't want to betray their trust.

But I was lucky, and...wow! The blurry, tilted picture doesn't do the architects justice, because the bowl in the middle was so evenly shaped and so neatly knitted that the surface was totally smooth. I could also see patches of wool tucked into it, and it looked...cosy!

Last year, we believe that Juno laid her first egg on March 10th, and a week ago I would never had thought that she might repeat that this year. But know I'm not so sure.

//Helena

The bird brain and the evolution of cognition

In October last year, Mathias was one of the invited speakers on "Hjärndagen" (the Brain day), organized by "Stiftelsen Forskning och Framsteg". His presentation "Fågelhjärnan och tänkandets evolution" gives an overview of research on the bird brain and the evolution of cognition.
Watch it HERE! (In Swedish)

Available PhD-position in Cognitive Zoology!

 Apply now for the new PhD-position in Cognitive Sciende specialising in Cognitive Zoology!
 The studentship is incorporated in the project "The social intelligence hypothesis and the episodic memory system", financed by the Swedish research council.
The project involves studies of the social cognition of ravens and great apes. Focus is on the role of the episodic memory system in such skill as reciprocal and indirect altruism. The main empirical work will be conducted on ravens at Lund University Corvid Cognition Station, but also to some extent at the department of cognitive biology, and its research station, at Vienna University. Start September 1st 2015.

//Helena

New nesting spot?

When we built the new aviary, we decided to take down the old platform that has served as a base for Siden and Juno's nest the last two years. As we want to use the new, adjacent aviary for the other group of ravens, we thought it would be too close to a nest which might create unnecessary aggression and unwanted stress.
Siden and Juno weren't too happy about me taking away their platform, but very quickly they adopted the new perches that I put up instead.

Old spot for the nest to the right, new nest box to the left.

We already tried a nestbox last year, and Siden and Juno started to build a nest in it, but it turned out to be too small, so they returned to their old platform where they bred successfully.

Old abandoned nest box.

New nest box.

The new box is at least twice as big as the old, and much higher. I made a plexi glass hatch in the roof, but I am not sure they will approve, and in that case it is easy to cover. In the wild, ravens nest in high trees or on cliffs, so we are not sure that Siden and Juno will like the idea of a box, but we will give it a try this year. And they have already spent some nights sitting in the opening.

As usual when you are in Siden and Juno's aviary they come down to hang out with you. Especially when you have exciting new things with you...like a camera. To get a good picture, I ran in and immedeately took a photo, which ended up like this:

Siden on his way down to me and the camera.

 And the second like this...

//Helena

New aviary

Since we have some "unused" space between the two aviaries, we decided to build a third aviary to improve the flexibility of the complex, and - most importantly - increase the ravens' living area.

The unused space in front of the runway would connect the two aviaries even more.

The problem was, that we had several studies going on before Christmas that needed to be finished, before we could start building. Juggling around with five metre long posts and big rolls of metal mesh could easily scare the ravens and interfere with the experimenting. So we waited as long as possible and settled on four days just before Christmas, which would give the ravens several weeks to calm down before Ivo, Can and Russ would be back to continue their studies.

The weather turned out to be extremely bad those days - a lot of rain and hard wind - but we were determined!

First post in place!

The constant rain was troublesome in several ways. When digging the hole for the concrete fundaments, some of them almost immideately filled with water, and the ground got extremely muddy and slippery.

Ivo, me, Mathias and Can, photographed by Russ.

Spreading lots of straw on the ground helped a little, and also made it look a litte less dull.

Ivo, Russ and Can

Since the ground was soft from all the rain, the fundaments tended to move when we leaned ladders against the posts, so every ladder had to be counterbalanced with another ladder on the other side of the post.
But it all went surprisingly well despite the weather and the shortage of time. We knew that we had to finish all the basic construction - especially the roof - before everybody left for christmas, otherwise it wouldn't be possible for me and Mathias to finish the rest of it by ourselves.

Panorama by Ivo - click to enlarge.

In the end, hard work and good spirits turned out to be enough, and we almost finished the roof before everybody left, and then the two of us had some extra days to work on walls, doors and interior material.

Panorama by Ivo - click to enlarge.

Another positive thing was the the ravens were much less effected by the building than we had anticipated. It might have helped that it was familiar people who carried around long items, hammered and drilled, but nevertheless we were greatly surprised. And it didn't take long for them to dare to check out the new place and start to play - testing the new braches and digging in the ground. However, before we can start to use it, we need to get permit from "Jordbruksverket", but hopefully that will not take long.

Thanks again Ivo, Can and Russ!

/Helena