Common ravens may be just that, but that hasn’t stopped a local birder from dedicating the last two months to tracking the growth of a nest of fledglings.
Jill Seaton first found the nest of sticks and moss tucked in a cubbyhole in cliffs of Maligne Canyon two months ago when it was only home to a breeding pair, and since then she has returned dozens of times to document each stage of the hatchlings’ development from freshly laid eggs to juveniles on the verge of their first flight.
“Interest kept me going back,” said Seaton, while reflecting on her latest passion. “It’s amazing how fast they’re developing. The biggest one will be five weeks old today,” she said on May 21. “It is amazing, they really are beginning to look like young ravens.”
Having spent so much time visiting the nest and watching the fledglings’ interactions with each other and their parents, Seaton said she has formed a special bond with the young birds.
“I feel they’re almost my grandchildren,” she said with a chuckle.
With each visit, Seaton has been posting updates on her personal Facebook page, providing photos and videos of the birds’ growth from day to day or week to week. She said she never expected so many of her friends to be enthralled with the posts, but ever since the first one she’s been receiving constant feedback.
“People really do seem to be interested in their progress and that’s lovely,” she said. “We’re in such a perfect place, here in Jasper, to take an interest in something like this and there’s so much birth, death and mating going on, it’s a wonderful world to watch.
“To start with a raven like this, it’s a fascinating thing to do.”
Once Seaton saw the six green eggs in early April, she said she had to go back, if for no other reason than to see how many would hatch.
So she kept tabs on the nest, keeping in mind the incubation period for an egg is between 20 and 25 days. And on April 21, she arrived to find all six had successfully shed their eggs.
But, ultimately, two didn’t make it. Seaton said she believes they died because they were significantly younger than the others.
“The thing is the eggs are laid at two or three day intervals, so you get one laid and then over the next two or three days the next is laid, so you’re going to have two at the end that are going to be much younger than the first ones.”
Although a difference of only days, at the rate a raven grows, that puts the youngest hatchlings lightyears away in terms of development.
“It’s amazing how quickly they grow,” said Seaton. “If you compare the second day to the first day it’s tremendous what the difference is. So, that means, those two were pretty well going to be left behind.”
It takes five to seven weeks for a young raven to leave the nest. In the meantime, it is doted on by its parents. Beginning from birth, when the hatchlings are nothing more than naked, pink gargoyle-like creatures, the mother and father collect food and deliver it right into the mouths of their young. That dedication, which requires near-constant feedings, lasts for the first 35 to 50 days of a fledgling’s life.
During that time as well, the parents also do their best to protect their young.
Seaton said that’s what she’s loved about watching the hatchlings—witnessing the undying devotion of their parents.
“The raven is a pretty aggressive, spectacular bird, but the parents are so gentle and so sweet with those chicks. In the afternoon, the sun hits the nest quite strongly and the chicks get very hot in there, but there’s always one raven there with its wings spread out to protect them. And then quite often in the early morning when it’s cold, there will be one there again with their wings spread out to keep them warm.
“They’re very good parents.”
What makes it so special, said Seaton, is that judging merely on appearances, you wouldn’t expect a raven to be so tender.
“With those murderous great beaks that they’ve got, you really wouldn’t,” she said. “But, I watched one of the adults, when the chicks were very small, go up on the slope behind, which is very grassy, and you could see it chasing insects and then it would bring the insects back and quite often share it with the other adult that would be there, pulling it apart and each feeding the chicks with these tiny little pieces.
“They’re so gentle with the little ones.”
As of Tuesday, only one fledgling had left the nest, leaving three behind.
Seaton has been back numerous times since they reached the five-week mark, but aside from stretching their wings, there has been little indication that they’re prepared to take flight.
“I’d love to be there when they do, but the chances that you’d see it would be pretty remote,” she said, sharing her grandmotherly concern about the day they do decide to fly.
“Below them there’s 120 feet of canyon, with the river roaring, so when they fly ,they’ve got to fly.
“I guess that’s why you have five or six eggs originally, instead of just one.”
Nicole Veerman
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