These are my two ravens ♥️🐦⬛🐦⬛#animals #birds #rfkjr pic.twitter.com/UNT4596Eeh
— Robert F. Kennedy Jr (@RobertKennedyJr) June 18, 2024
2. Is this just exactly what it is — a man interacting with wildlife that happens to frequent his backyard?
3. The use of "taming" prods us to read the relevant section of "The Little Prince":
"What does that mean--'tame'?"...
"It is an act too often neglected," said the fox. "It means to establish ties."
"'To establish ties'?"
"Just that," said the fox. "To me, you are still nothing more than a little boy who is just like a hundred thousand other little boys. And I have no need of you. And you, on your part, have no need of me. To you, I am nothing more than a fox like a hundred thousand other foxes. But if you tame me, then we shall need each other. To me, you will be unique in all the world. To you, I shall be unique in all the world . . ."...
"But I have not much time. I have friends to discover, and a great many things to understand."
"One only understands the things that one tames," said the fox. "Men have no more time to understand anything. They buy things all ready made at the shops. But there is no shop anywhere where one can buy friendship, and so men have no friends any more. If you want a friend, tame me . . ."
"What must I do, to tame you?" asked the little prince.
"You must be very patient," replied the fox. "First you will sit down at a little distance from me--like that--in the grass. I shall look at you out of the corner of my eye, and you will say nothing. Words are the source of misunderstandings. But you will sit a little closer to me, every day.... One must observe the proper rites . . ."
"What is a rite?" asked the little prince.
"Those also are actions too often neglected," said the fox. "They are what make one day different from other days, one hour from other hours. There is a rite, for example, among my hunters. Every Thursday they dance with the village girls. So Thursday is a wonderful day for me! I can take a walk as far as the vineyards. But if the hunters danced at just any time, every day would be like every other day, and I should never have any vacation at all."...
5. Birds loom large in RFK Jr.'s story. I read his book about himself, "American Values" (commission earned):
While I still keep pigeons, my obsession with birds found its focus at age eleven. After reading T. H. White’s Camelot saga, The Once and Future King, I bought every book available on falconry.... When I nearly severed my foot in a 1965 accident that kept me on crutches for months, my father bought me a pet-store red-tailed hawk, as consolation. I named her Morgan, after King Arthur’s half sister. Miraculously I found a local falconer, Alva Nye, to teach me the sport.... My father knew of Nye because the State Department occasionally asked him to entertain visiting Arab dignitaries, many of whom were crazy for hawks. Somehow I acquired a copy of Emperor Frederick II’s manual on falconry. Emperor Frederick was one of history’s great ornithologists, and perhaps the most humane, enlightened European monarch of the Middle Ages. Frederick filled his court with writers, artists, poets, scientists, philosophers, and theologians of every religion. He spoke six languages....
That suggests that in the mind of RFK Jr., the training of birds connects with principles of benevolent governance.
Back to point #4. I can't help thinking of this passage I read recently, in the book "Radical Wordsworth: The Poet Who Changed the World" (commission earned):
One day early in 1783, two of Wordsworth’s fellow pupils at the grammar school were scrambling on Yewdale Crags, not far from the village, when they saw a raven’s nest high on a ledge. The black raven is a bird with vicious talons and bill, readily capable of pecking out the eyes of a lamb. There was accordingly a bounty on its head, a ‘Varmen [vermin] Reward’ of fourpence a bird. Wordsworth remembered seeing bunches of unfledged ravens suspended in the churchyard at Hawkshead. For schoolboys, eggs were both a trophy and a contribution to pest control. The boys went back to the town and found two friends who were accomplished climbers. They took a look: the nest was perched very near the top of the crags, accessible only by a dangerous rope climb. Back they went to town. A lad employed to build drystone walls had a rope and a hook, and was willing to accompany them. A gaggle of other boys went along, including the one they called Bill Wordsworth. They all clawed their way up the crag. Then John Benson, the boy who was supposed to be the best climber, set off along the precipitous ledge, held by a rope and with a satchel on his back to gather the eggs. He got very close to the nest but was then impeded by the overhang of the rock above the ledge. He froze. They tried to talk him down, but he could not make himself move. Some of the boys, among them the two youngest – Bill Raincock and Bill Wordsworth – were sent to get help. It took a long time coming, but eventually a great hulk of a man called Frank Castlehow, together with his equally athletic son Jonathan, scaled the crag, all the way to the top, and Jonathan went down on the ledge to haul up the terrified Benson. Wordsworth’s friends the Raincock brothers never went raven’s nesting again.
The Prelude has a vivid account of the thrill of such a climb:
Oh, when I have hung
Above the raven’s nest, by knots of grass,
Or half-inch fissures in the slipp’ry rock,
But ill sustained, and almost, as it seemed,
Suspended by the blast which blew amain,
Shouldering the naked crag, oh at that time,
While on the perilous ridge I hung alone,
With what strange utterance did the loud dry wind
Blow through my ears! the sky seemed not a sky
Of earth, and with what motion moved the clouds!
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52 comments:
“Let my heart be still a moment and this mystery explore...”
We have nesting Ravens in the woods near our house. They chatter all day long. One of the birds is distinctive and my daughter thinks she spotted him across the mountain in a neighboring town.
It’s a hopeful political metaphor, I think. He wants a certain collection of people to eat out of his hands. Maybe the democrat hoi polloi, maybe the media, maybe his family… who knows?
If they are named Huginn and Muninn we'll know he's pandering to the Viking vote.
Awesome post!
Are those birds like the ones in the Consumer Cellular commercials?
"Birds!"
What a great post. Thanks.
''Tis the wind and nothing more!'
Junior' is reminding everyone he has some depth and range to his interests. It's an influencer counterpoint to Biden's diminished capacities, which have always been limited to begin with.
Thank you Professor for the cultural side trip this morning.
The ravens at the Tower of London are a highlight of the tour.
"Hugin and Munin fly each dayover the spacious earth.
I fear for Hugin, that he come not back,
yet more anxious am I for Munin."
Odin speaking about his two ravens. From the Poetic Edda. Maybe RFkjr has visions of divine grandeur
Ravens are amazing. Brilliant, funny, playful, acrobatic. Watching a raven and a hawk go at it mid flight is incredible flying prowess. Watching ravens enjoy the gusts of a mountain pass is inspiring.
They get into all sorts of mischief. I need to go out right now and clean up the trash a bear knocked over but the ravens spread around.
Mind of the Raven by Bernd Heinrich is a great read. As is The Ravenmaster by Chris Skaife about taking care of the Tower of London ravens. He also has a great twitter account
I have a bag of old granola I've been meaning to take with me on my walks.
I am going to use it to feed crows.
I hear they are very smart, as smart as a 7-year-old or a democrat.
If they like you, they will bring you shiny things and I like shiny things.
I saw an X video about a crow/raven whose owner taught it how to find money and bring it back to his house.
That's the kind of pet I need except for all the squawking...
I thought ravens were bigger? What's the difference between a raven and a crow.
Joe Biden speaks to President Cici of Mexico about Gaza. Trump pays porns stars hush money and thinks Putin is a "genius."
Feeding birds is a normal thing that normal people do.
I'd be more concerned about ravens attacking lambs on farms if I got my lamb meat from farms rather than the supermarket.
Such a mundane point, but it seems Kennedy has wisely protected himself from accusations of law breaking by pointing out that he does not actually own those ravens, which I, not a lawyer, think is illegal under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act.
I am uncertain what deal the government made with the Ravens, but I am confident Donald Trump can make a better deal, every bit as good as the deal he made with the sharks, but hopefully better than the one he made with the batteries. That was a tough deal, the one with the batteries, and it wasn't really a deal, because we're going back to that deal, but even the preliminary deal was much better than any previous deal, which, trust me, all the best people in the deal making world tell me is true.
They are smart. They hear him speak and dream of a feast when he keels over…
…and he’s the healthy Democrat in the race.
Biden loves the free press: he just never wants to see or speak to them unless its heavily scripted and he can be swept offstage swiftly and as long as no one asks any questions about his age.
Aside: have we lost the War on Malarkey?
DD Driver, ravens are a lot bigger. They also have different calls and don't tend to congregate in huge groups.
Those in the video do look more like crow size to me, but that might be a perspective issue.
And pairs do mate for life and are territorial.
Falconry? How to say you’ve had a privileged upbringing without actually saying that you’ve had a privileged upbringing.
RFKjr? Nevermore.
I went to Pace University School of Law in White Plains, NY and was on the Environmental Law Review. RFK Jr used to come into the Environmental Law Review Office with a falcon on his shoulder.
Agree with Big Mike - not just having a pet hawk, "miraculously" found a falconer because his dad knew him through his entertaining Arab dignitaries for the State Department, and "somehow" he "acquired" a copy of Emperor Frederick II’s manual on falconry. Is he running for President or to be our next Prince?
An AR chambered in .223 can take care of livestock-killing coyotes and ravens from a pretty decent distance away. This gives the lie to the people who try to argue there is no reasonable need for an AR rifle.
If they are named Huginn and Muninn we'll know he's pandering to the Viking vote.
Odin's ravens had a purpose. They flew each day around the world observing all they saw. In the evening they would stand on each of Odin's shoulders and tell him all they saw. Perhaps RFK has a more modest goal for them, to train them to spy on Biden and Trump. If so, he'd hear a lot of weird shit.
Hard pass on the eye-plucking ravens. Sticking with the splendiferous grass.
Though nothing can bring back the hour
Of splendour in the grass,
Of glory in the flower,
We will grieve not, rather find
Strength in what remains behind;
Heckle, Jeckle and Selfishio Poopo.
Ravens also have thicker roman-nose style beaks. Crow beaks are more like triangles. Different tail feather pattern too.
Where I went to seminary, there was a mating pair of ravens living in the urban oasis that was campus, lots of palm trees and other types. I'd stop in the middle of campus and watch or listen to them (they have chatty sounds as well as their usual cawing and croaking), and people would often ask what I was doing and then watch with me for a while when I told them. So many people just go through their day without noticing the world around them.
Ravens can be terrible, destructive, willfully violent for food or just for fun. They eat most anything so have a lot of time for mischief. A lot like people, really, except they can fly and you can tell when they're watching us they think they are better than us for this fact.
This honestly is a big plus for me with RFKjr. Both for the ravens and for his noticing and highlighting them. And that the ravens are there show he's not faking. Ravens won't be props, unless they're dead and perched on a bust of Pallas.
Sunday morning I saw a fairly rare red-winged blackbird harassing a raven. They were in the grass along the side of the back road between a Walmart and Sam's. They caught me by surprise and I wasn't quick enough to stop to get a pic.
Gene Wilder plays the fox in the taming sequence of The Little Prince movie. With his bushy hair and his round eyes, he's so shy and alluring. Great song.
Are ravens as smart as crows? Like the Paddy O I sometimes stop and observe crows in my neighborhood. We don't see a lot of ravens down here. I think they're more northern birds. I see a lot in the UP and northern Wisc.
Rusty, our common ravens are smarter than our crows. They definitely seem a lot more playful. Though some crows in other parts of the world are very brilliant, like the New Caledonian crows, who have been shown to plan multi-step tasks and problem-solve in new situations, not just trial/error.
Ravens can be found in any climate, we have them here in SoCal, in the mountains and deserts. But crows and ravens don't tend to get along well, so it's sometimes one or the other in particular regions. Where I grew up in eastern LA county, we only had crows, and a lot of them. An hour away and a mile up where I live now, only ravens.
Cheap joke…
Taming ravens as a backup option if the brainworm returns
RFK Jr is a whack job. Interesting and alluring, but still a whack job. It's not just the ravens. It's everything else, plus the ravens.
Point 1: The birds Junior says are his ravens aren't ravens. They are crows, Corvus brachyrhynchos. There are many raven species, but none are common in the Lower 48. Where they do exist, the ravens are predominately the circumpolar Corvus corax and the considerably smaller Chihuahuan raven, Corvus cryptoleucus. Crows don't tame easily, but they do form relationships with humans that are more akin to friendships than taming.
Point 2: Shooting those marauding Scottish ravens may help, but it probably won't. Ravens are like orcas in that they are capable of culture. By culture, naturalists generally mean purposeful behaviors that are acquired rather than innate and are passed on to descendants. Among the orcas, some concentrate their predation on large schooling fish like salmon. They have acquired skills and strategies that increase their hunting efficiency toward salmon, which the young members observe and emulate. Other groups concentrate on marine mammals that require different skills and strategies. The fish-eaters and the seal-killers are not different taxonomically, they differ only in their culture.
Ravens are similar. Some coastal ravens live primarily by exploiting gulls. Ravens cannot prey on fish. Their beaks and talons aren't suitable, and their plumage is easily damaged by seawater. But coastal ravens have learned how to harass gulls in such a way that the gulls regurgitate their catch. There are many other such exploitive behaviors that ravens have adopted and teach to their young.
Point 3: Simply shooting ravens may only increase the population of sheep-killers by increasing their share of the habitable space. Falconry is a better solution.
Falconry is more than a field sport, it's a culture and a lifestyle. Every master falconer is, in a sense, a professional. Every aspect of a master falconer's life must be harmonized with the daily routines of management and hunting, which is the main reason the practitioners of the art have been members of the leisured class. However, since the 1950's some have been able to earn a living through falconry. It started in the UK when falconers were hired by the RAF to keep their runways clear of birds. All aircraft are susceptible to damage by bird strikes, but jets are especially vulnerable. Paying a falconer a living wage proved to be far cheaper in repairs and especially lives than leaving the birds that frequent the open spaces typical of an airbase unmolested by birds of prey that can be trained to repeat their attacks as many times as there is available daylight. In the wild, a raptor will make attacks until it succeeds in making a kill, which it will feed on. Then the bird's instincts send it to some safe roost where it will sit and digest its meal. A raptor allied with a falconer (alliance, that's a key concept to keep in the forefront of one's mind whenever the subject of falconry is considered) can repeat the hunt again and again, often enough to discourage and drive away any vulnerable creature.
After the RAF's success with falconry, other air forces, including ours, have adopted the practice, which has spread to civil airports as well. Good job, falconry. Lately, the protection of valuable crops such as wine grapes and raspberries has become a lucrative business for falconers. For example, the entire Australian citrus industry was saved from the depredations of millions of cockatoos by a handful of skilled falconers and a few dozen eager peregrines. Scottish sheep can be saved by the same technique. Raven hawking is an ancient variation of the sport that was made illegal in the UK when the native raven population collapsed under the destructive influence of DDT in the 1950s. Lift the ban and the sheep-killing ravens can be utterly suspressed within a few weeks of good hawking weather.
This are my ravens. There are many like them, but these two are mine.
My ravens are my best friend. They are my life. I must master them as I must master my life.
Without me, my ravens are useless. Without my ravens, I am useless. I must fire my ravens true. I must shoot straighter than my enemy who is trying to kill me. I must shoot him before he shoots me. I will ...
He might be trying to draw implicit comparisons between himself and his opponents. Taming the ravens requires patience and dedicated action, his opponent Biden wouldn't have the mental faculties or perhaps even constitution to do that, and his other opponent Trump doesn't have the temperament to do so. Maybe he is trying to also paint himself in the middle of the other two. Biden and the current totalitarian woke folks currently in power in much of DC are unacceptable and there needs to be a change away from them, but where Trump would be a shocking, sharp, and sudden change, RFK Jr. would be be more gradual. He would work to persuade people over time and earn their trust without controlling them much like the ravens are altering their behavior without RFK Jr. owning them. If that is the message, I'm not sure it will have that wide of appeal. Change candidates are loved because of the dramatic and quick changes they promise. The safe, slow, and gradual process of change, which ultimately might be more stable, isn't very appealing to most people who do desire change.
"1. Is this a political message in metaphor?"
Exactly what it is is an effort to humanize the candidate with the purpose of getting certain voters eating out of his hand.
Shoot enough Ravens and they'll get the point, and leave the sheep alone. They're smart birds.
As for RFK, I found his "taming" of the Ravens amusing, but Goddamn it stop talking about their "babies". They're chicks.
I am sure there is a law against capturing and taming wild ravens somewhere.
"There are many raven species, but none are common in the Lower 48."
What?! Just because they're not in your part of the Lower 48, don't say they're not in other parts. The common raven is indeed common here in the west, from desert into the seas (Channel Islands), from mountains and all parts.
I'm listening to ravens right now chatting to each other. Definitely not crows. Crows and ravens look and sound very different, especially when seen up close.
To quote Hunter S. Thompson: "And then the drugs kicked in."
You don’t even have to go to the Zoo.
Birdbrain’s dad died yesterday, I believe.
In California, ravens are protected under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act. It was amazing to me that nearly every raven that flew into a high tension line (and fried) was identified as a crow by certain electric companies. Of course that was nothing compared to the death of birds of every species caused by wind turbines and the Ivanpah solar thermal plant such as the one just outside Primm, NV.
Leave it to this mental case to outcrazy Ralph Nader talking to his parrot.
Sheridan, speaking of the Migratory Bird act, back in 2007 when a huge amount of pine trees in our area were killed by bark beetles, the power company had tree removal crews coming through our neighborhood. They got all the branches off about 7/8ths up a really tall pine across the street from us, then stopped. Raven nest. I watched from just after the hatching to the fledging (couldn't see into the nest, so only could see the chicks when they got big enough).
Next year they took the whole tree down before nesting season started. All because they couldn't touch the nest due to that Act, even though ravens around here are decidedly non-migratory. Though, maybe it's because the young ravens do find different territories to call their own after their adolescent gang phase.
Quoth the Raven “Nevermore.”
ThreeSheets said...
“If they are named Huginn and Muninn we'll know he's pandering to the Viking vote.”
Or Odin is keeping an eye on him.
(Sorry if you think the double entendre was in poor taste.)
Blogger Paddy O said...
" The common raven is indeed common here in the west, from desert into the seas (Channel Islands), from mountains and all parts.”
They’re found in Baltimore, too.
Face by R Crumb.
This guy is essentially Mike Lindell with a pedigree name.
Paddy O
West Nile Virus devastated the crow population here. It's now come back to nearly what it once was. I once saw a crow walkin around the lip of a garbage can. Facing outward hopping along the perimeter like he was looking for something. Before long a crow that had been down in the garbage can hopped up to join him. Then the original crow went down into the garbage can. Pretty damn smart.
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