Circling for rodents?

Although Ravens are corvids not raptors they do take
live prey as well as carrion. There is no reason in
the world why they should not be hunting for food.
Flying takes a great deal of energy and like most animals
birds fly for a reason, they don't waste energy which
requires more food. Whether they enjoy themselves at
the same time is debateable. Ravens are also renowned
for their intelligence, in the brid sense, but that
is not saying a great deal. The description 'birdbrain'
was coined for a reason and most of a birds brain is
taken up in processing it's senses. This does not leave
a lot for thinking.

Come to think of it.................. no, better not
go there :-)

At 18:48 12 July 2004, Tony Verhulst wrote:
??Back in my hang gliding days I participated in a
competition at ?Grandfather Mountain in North Carolina
- about an 800 foot cliff ?followed by another 800
feet of mountain Ð and the cliff was part of a ?soarable
ridge. Grandfather mountain is a tourist attraction
with a road ?to the top and a gift shop at the summit.
We knew we weren't going to ?soar that day because
we had trouble walking into the gift shop. The ?weather
station inside was reporting winds in excess of 90
mph. But the ?wind direction was perfect - dead on
the ridge.??We didn't soar that day but the local residents
did. They have ravens at ?Grandfather mountain - lots
of ravens. We were literally hanging on to ?any thing
we could because we were afraid of being blown off
the ?mountain. And, walking across that suspension
bridge between the 2 peaks ?was probably not the smartest
move. Anyway, the ravens were soaring the ?flippin'
ridge. They had their wings tucked in real close and
were just ?zipping along. T
hey were at ridge top level about 30 feet in front
of us ?and it was just amazing. I can only guess at
what their airspeed was, ?but they were probably moving
across the ridge at 20 to 30mph and so ?when you factor
in the 90+ mph wind speed, their ASIs were probably
?hitting near 130. You'll never convince me they were
flying to catch ?lunch - they were flying because they
were having a blast. Of this I ?have absolutely no
doubt.??Tony V. LS6-b '6N'?