I would take two young of the clutch of four to six I expected to find in each nest. But in Maine at the end of April 1993, still a month before the maples would leaf out, that year's baby ravens would already have a coat of black feathers. The ice had just melted off Hills Pond, and the first warblers were back. The last few patches of winter snow were left in the shady places under fir trees. The trees that ravens like to nest in are not the ones I like to climb. Obtaining and living with young ravens has its inconveniences, not the least of which is making the hazardous ascents to get them from the nest. It was perhaps the only way to learn about many aspects of their intimate social behavior. Given these difficulties, I felt I needed to try to obtain young and to be a surrogate parent to them. Ravens are shyer and more alert, and have keener vision than any other wild animal I know, making it even more difficult to watch their natural undisturbed behavior. In my part of the country, where food is sparsely distributed, ravens may range over a hundred square miles a day, and they fly away at the mere sight of a human.
That's a tall order with wild ravens in northeastern America. You must be able to observe the fine details of its behavior for long periods of time without the animal seeing or feeling your presence.
The first prerequisite for studying any animal is to get and to stay close. Investigations and Adventures with Wolf-Birds Chapter One Becoming a Raven Father
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