Once upon a Tuesday dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary
Over many a quaint and curious piece of scientific prose
Though I drifted, losing focus, a sudden blast of inspiration,
As of some hoarse, scratchy calling, calling and I rose.
“Who’s that visitor?” I wondered, “with the thick and rugged nose”
Corvus corax, one of those!
Yeah, well I’ll stick to science, then shall I? But the idea is still important. Over the last few weeks, as I’ve been walking around my neighborhood, I have seen- on more than one occasion, a Common Raven flying around. When I first moved back to NC, I only saw them up in the mountains. Several times I’d have people tell me that they saw one near some other sites, but overall, I’d argue, raven sitings were not that common. And so, when I saw this raven right in the center of east Charlotte (off Monroe Rd, so not a wooded locale), I did a double-take. Was it, really? Size? Check! Rounded tail? Check! Sounds? Check! It really was a raven. And then, not only was it a single siting, but it’s been nearly every day for a few weeks. We’ve got (a) raven(s)! Yeah, I can’t quite tell if it’s just the one or if there are multiples. I might have chalked this vision up to one lost bird, if not for a conversation with some staff at the Carolina Raptor Center who said that they were surprised to find a Common Raven sitting on top of the enclosures!
So, as I do, I went and did a little digging. It seems that other people are looking into the changing distributions of these once-common birds.
In this fun paper, we learn several things that I’d like to take a moment to highlight:
- Common Ravens are increasing their range in the eastern United States. While they are primarily increasing their range and numbers to the Northeast, they are also expanding out of the mountains and into the Piedmont (which encompasses Charlotte).
- A lot of the data that these authors analyzed came from Citizen Scientists (Go Team Science!). They went through state ornithological societies, the Great Backyard Bird Count, the Christmas Bird Count, and other sources of presence data that had been collected by people who just like birds, then compiled them into highly detailed maps and data sets, organized them by year, and found this pattern of range extension in these amazing birds.
So, what does this all mean? It means that we can all do science. The observations that you make in your own yard or neighborhood can help researchers understand larger-scale patterns of what’s happening with the world around you. Go outside, look, pay attention, and you can help us science-y types with better data (and prevent us from changing up other people’s poems!).
Birding Without Binoculars 