One morning a few weeks ago around 7:00 am there was a raven that was making persistent calls for about 20 minutes while I lay in bed. After getting up, I looked out back door window to find a raccoon wandering around on my back patio. I was surprised to see him still out now that it was light out. The raven was dive bombing the raccoon, telling him that it was time to go home to his daytime resting place. The sounds continued for another fifteen minutes as the bird followed the raccoon from my house across the street to the neighbor's house. I was quite amazed at how the bird followed the raccoon, and continued to harass him as he made his way down the street.
This evening around 7:00 pm, there was again the persistent calling of a raven outside. Remembering the event from a few weeks ago, I wondered if it again meant that there was a raccoon in the neighborhood. I looked out my back door and found a young blonde colored raccoon on my patio. He was carefully placing his paws on the ground feeling for peanuts in the bird seed that had fallen to the ground. I had about a handful of peanuts in the shell handy that I feed to the squirrels, so I grabbed them and went to sit on my back steps. I gently threw the peanuts toward him one by one. He continued to carefully feel for the peanuts on the ground, only this time he had to remove the shells before he could eat them. A couple of times he decided he wanted to take the peanut in the shell and play with in the water fountain first. This is familiar behavior that I have seen with raccoons in my moms back yard. They like to play with their food in the water. While I sat there, the bird continued to call for a while, but then eventually flew off.
Now I know the call of the raven communicating that a raccoon is in the neighborhood wasn't just a one time occurrence. Keep your eyes and ears open. The calls of the raven around dusk or dawn have meaning. You just have to listen and notice what is going on around on the ground.
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