I passed by the Marble Cemetery on East Second Street this morning and saw what I thought was a huge crow (the cemetery has its own flock). A neighbor there informed me that it was a raven with a broken wing, brought to this urban sanctuary from Utah. Her name is Emily. She can’t fly more than a few feet off the ground and is sometimes harassed by a local hawk. But she has survived here for about 4 months. Emily has friends who bring her boiled chicken and Chinese food, but I also saw her scrounging for bugs in the grass.
I came back in the afternoon with my DMC-FZ5 to get this shot, my pocket camera a DMC-FS5 was not up to the task.
Update:
I just came across a funny story about feeding the raven.
Unwelcome Handful of Meat
Update, August 5: I’ve gone back several times trying to capture more shots of Emily. I now know why she is not more famous. Most of the time she is up in her tree at the west end of the cemetery, well hidden from view.
A poor photo but at least it gives you a comparison of her size to the crow on the left.
You should check her out, Irene. It is hard to show how large she is without having a human in the shot. Maybe, twice the size of a crow.
I’ll definitely look for her. Thanks for the info!
How’d she get here from Utah? Seems a strange journey for an injured animal. I’ll definitely go visit her.
I have no other information other than what that one person told me. I’ve found nothing on the web. This cemetery, being closed off from the public and free of coyotes, should be a better home for her than the Utah wilds.
Wow, G, very cool shot…
I didn’t know about this beautiful Raven…I love ‘em…They’re so smart, and striking…
this is fascinating!
Beautiful capture and equally interesting neighborhood story!
Thanks editrrix. Yeah, the story really touches me, and I do believe it. But all I really know for sure is that there is a huge black bird hopping around in the Marble Cemetery.
I live in one of the buildings overlooking the cemetery and have noticed an unusually large crow – this is so interesting. Thanks so much for passing along!
While Googling to find out more about the raven I found this funny story about feeding her.
decodingnyc.blogspot.com/2009/06/unwelcome-handful-of-mea…
Ha, I’ll have to take her some old roast beef.
Not too old, I hope. I don’t have any of that, I wonder if she would go for some baked tofu.