----The photos are linked, as required, to Flickr. But In general the largest versions are here on the blog. ---
These guys seemed to enjoy posing for me, in fact two others joined them on the fence. Or maybe they were too hot to feel like flying.
I haven’t seen neither beak nor feather of my pal Samantha Raven in a couple of months, so I guess I’ll have to make friends with the pigeons. I wonder if you can identify individuals by plumage.
I took this photo on May 11, I haven’t seen her since. A neighbor whose apartment overlooks the cemetery hasn’t seen her in a couple of weeks. I don’t think her wing have healed enough for her to wander off by herself. But she was able to reach adjacent rooftops by scrambling up nearby trees. So I guess she could have maybe headed to Tompkins Square or some nearby back garden. Here’s hoping she is doing well.
Rotted pilings near the Manhattan side of the Brooklyn Bridge.
Yes the GammaBlog continues to stalk Samantha Raven. I saw her fly the other day from the roof to a tree branch, about 30 feet downward. This is the longest I’ve seen her fly. Unfortunately my camera wasn’t pointed at her at the time. Her right wing still noticeably droops when she walks. Her mobility is slightly better than it was last year, but she needs to heal a lot more before she could be sent back to the wild.
Samantha Gossip:
A neighbor told me Samantha is friends with a local hawk. I’ve yet to see the hawk.
Anyone know a male raven for poor Samantha?
According to my brother, this building in Myrtle Beach, always has several of these buzzards perched on its roof.
I went to the New York City Marble Cemetery on East Second Street today during Open House New York, and got to see where Samantha Raven hangs. It is as I suspected, she is in the eastern portion, not visible from the street. Samantha was fairly tolerant, letting me get about ten feet from her. Being that close I could see that it is her right wing that is broken. I don’t think it is possible for her to stalk and kill a pigeon, as some have claimed, she is just not agile enough. Though, I have seen her scavenging a pigeon, already deceased.
I was not able to learn much about Samantha’s situation, other than that she is a rescue animal with a broken wing and that her name is Samantha, not Emily as I was earlier told. Also the raven may be from Wyoming and not Utah as I earlier reported, or maybe neither, not that it really matters.
Not to be confused with The New York Marble Cemetery, a short distance away on Second Avenue.
Update: On my Flickr stream someone identifying themselves as Samantha’s Surgardaddy says: “her wing’s not broken…. rather, aggressive tendon strain that appears to be improving to a point, that after a year and a half of “rest,” she may soon be able to fly on from this block… She was brought from Jackson Hole, WY, mid-June ’08. She entered Marble Cemetery April ’09. Richard, the squirrel and pigeon feeder, is the singular individual claiming to have seen her actually kill a pigeon… on further questioning it appears that he had his back turned when she made the supposed “kill”…. The greater likelihood it that the carcass was dropped from above by a hawk finished with its “snack.” Yesterday, Samantha did recover the the sun-dried carcass of a squirrel that was left high in the trees….. I DID see this… my back was not turned…. The Common Raven likes its dinner dead… preferring someone else to do the work…. And, Yes… the red-tailed hawk, yesterday, was spectacular…. hanging in there for a good 2+ hours, despite throngs of high-speed dogs,…. and was, no doubt, considering “dropping” another pigeon so as to fuel further false indictment of Samantha.”
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