A visit to Cal State East Bay's taxidermy collection

Aware of my obsession with all things avian, a good friend allowed me access to Cal State East Bay's taxidermy collection. Many of their songbird specimens are ravaged by time and infestation, but there are a few intact, sketchable specimens like this seagull, in an especially life-like posture.

Then there's the Common Raven, never more, in a much less animated pose.  

David Sedaris, humorist, author and frequent contributor to PRI's This American Life and The New Yorker magazine relates his experience buying a Valentine's Day gift at a London taxidermy shop -- my kinda guy. (see link below)

http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2012/10/22/understanding-owls?currentPage=all

Ravenous 4

Ravens belong to the Corvid family, which also includes crows, jays and magpies. Corvids have high cognitive ability, and both Crows and Ravens can be taught to talk and can even recognize faces.

Ravens are acrobatic fliers, rolling and somersaulting in aerial stunts like birds of prey. Young birds play games with sticks, repeatedly dropping, and then diving and retrieving them in mid-air. One bird was seen flying upside down for a half-mile.

Inquisitiveness and intelligence earn Ravens a prankster reputation. They've been known to create power outages on power lines, foul satellite dishes, peel radar-absorbant material from a California Weapons Center, peck holes in airplane wings, invade camp tents and steal golf balls.

Ravens appear in the mythology of ancient and indigenous peoples and cultures throughout the world. The oldest known Common Raven lived 17 years.

Thanks to The Cornell Lab of Ornithology Cool Facts.