ML646743050

Observation details

One of the locals flew south at rooftop height at 7:05, calling as it passed. The other member of the resident pair arrived from the east at 7:07 and made its way down to the street to pick at a roadkilled rat. After tearing off a few scraps of meat from the carcass, the bird flew up to a nearby power lines of a nearby utility pole. While holding the meat, the raven rubbed its bill against the surface of a partially exposed clamp connector and then deliberately, delicately placed a morsel directly upon the wires themselves, immediately adjacent to the clamp. It let the meat rest there for several minutes, periodically making slight positional adjustments and once tearing off a small chunk, before picking it up and bolting it down. Given the sub-freezing temperatures this morning, it appears that the raven was intentionally warming its meal with this technological heat source, one of the more remarkable cases of tool use that I have personally observed in this species! It eventually flew west at 7:13, while the first bird could still be heard calling to the south