It was a tragic story of longing. A longing from deep inside to be with the one she loved so dearly. She could not free herself from the image of his silhouette soaring high in the majestic blue sky above Yellowstone National Park. But alas, it was a forbidden love in the eyes of her father, for he had wished a better life for his only daughter. Those early days in the nest hearing about how the life of an eagle’s spouse is a life of luxury would excite her so. A life filled with fresh fish and the respect of a whole nation. These stories filled her dreams until she spotted him in a murder. So dark! So sinister! So dangerous! With the constant danger of her father finding out, they had to keep their meetings in secret.
She would continually scan the sky looking for those sexy black tail feathers to come a calling. She couldn’t find him to the left…umm the other left
A similar result when she looked to the right..yeah, the other right (hey, birds don’t really know direction anyway)
.. but then she spotted him hanging out on a low branch of a neighboring pine tree. She fluffed her feathers and made a nervous scan for her father.
Good, he was out harassing some tourists trying to shake them down for a piece of hot dog or french fry… ummm french fries… oh.. she re-gathered her focus and called out to her beau. “Hey Baby, your place or mine?” she jests as she takes flight already feeling her heart beat at the strength of 10 + 2.
Hit the jump to read the rest of the tragic story.. or just to see the rest of the pictures
“Hi Baby” She calls me Baby, she calls everyone Baby. “What’s wrong?” her boyfriend asks. “I’m just so scared and lonely all at the same time.” “I know, I know, but your father would put blood on this scarecrow if he saw us together. ” “Good news, he is out pestering park visitors and won’t be back for awhile.”
“I don’t know, it seems too risky, he has one hell of a beak on him and those eyes.. they are filled with hatred towards me”. “Shhhhhhhhh.. I bet I know what will melt your black heart… some ear nibbles.” She knew how to set his mind at ease and besides, everyone likes a little ear nibble.
“Oh shucks, you know that tickles.” “Now, now, relax, no one will see, this pine tree will sufficiently hide us but if you don’t like the nibbles, then how about a PECK ON THE CHEEK – gotcha!”
“Crap, you know I can’t resist when you wear black. How about one on the beak missy?”
“Coooooooo, I can’t take this oppression by my father anymore, let’s fly off into the sunset and live our lives the way it was meant to be, togeth…..” “Let’s talk about this later, right now let’s just enjoy the time we have … now kiss me like you mean it”
“Hey precious, I’m back early and scored two french fries to share with my favorite daughter.” “Whaaaaaaaaa……..!!!!!!”
“HEY, WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON OVER THERE!?!”
“Uhh ccaaawwww umm caawwww uhh Hel lllooo Siiir Niii cc ee d aaaay to —ddday isnnnn’ttt it?”
“You in the black feathers with bad intentions, get away from my daughter or I’ll unleash some Raven-Fu on your ass, or worse yet, call in some favors with Mr. Owl.”
I’m keeping my eye you and I better never see you around my daughter again. NEVERMORE! DO YOU UNDERSTAND?
NEVERMORE, NEVERMORE.
Wow, a Harlequin author I am not. I took some liberties with sequencing and if you are observant you might have noticed I had to swap out a different father at the end. The first one lost focus when a subway wrapper blew across the set. While in Yellowstone with our friends David and Giselle, we pulled into a turn off to hit the restrooms when I spotted the female bird (well, as far as I can tell the female of the couple since it was smaller and that is all the bird references would give as a distinguishing feature) started cawing loudly. Finally spotting the bird, I trained the beast on it to see what I could get. From there, the Raven did fly to the other Raven on the pine tree where they started showing the behavior above. In all, I thought they came out very nice especially since I was shooting during the day towards the sky. As before, the full images are up on Smugmug (link here).
Oh, we also had a weird experience while there. As I was taking pictures of these two birds, another guy (looking a little rough mind you) came up behind us and simply said “Raaaavvveeeennnns” in a slow low devious tone and then just walked off. That pretty much became the running joke of the week.
by the way, there will be more upcoming shots of the ravens we saw out there – I had to break it into two parts in order to keep the theme in this post. Sorry for the sappy post, but hopefully you liked the pictures.
Cute story. You have your “right” and “left” switched, BTW.
How in the world did you get that close-up of the raven’s eye? What kind of top-secret lens is The Beast??
Ron
Okay, okay, I screwed up the directions – I updated the post but to be honest I couldn’t get the bird to turn the proper direction no matter how many times I yelled right and left – what are they teaching these birds in schools these days!
As far as the Beast goes, it’s a dream lens – still can’t let believe Linda let me buy it, but to be honest, it is NEVER enough reach in the field. However, in the case of the last shots, that bird was a mere 6′ feet away staring into the windshield in the car next to us (I was really waiting for the award winning shot of it pecking that dudes eyes out)
You should write novels… Quite insane..
This was good, but I lean towards the Poe Text… Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered weak and weary, over many a quaint…
How close physically were you for the last few photos?
Hi John, welcome to the blog! I am also much fonder of the Poe works – maybe next time I’ll use a much more dark and menacing storyline – love stories are definitely not my forte… maybe some storyline out of The Crow.
I was about 6′ away when I took the Raven shots – we were parked in one of the lots at Yellowstone and had just returned from a hike out to the backside of the Grand Prismatic (Fairy Falls Trail). Once in the car I looked over to the car next to us and that Raven was staring down the driver through the windshield. With him preoccupied with trying to kill him I was able to get some pretty cool shots off – then he noticed me and we high-tailed it out of there!
Thanks for taking the time to comment!!
You forgot to mention the fact that the guy that was (un?)fortunate enough to have the raven on his hood was happily snapping pictures too… Until he saw you with “the beast” poking out of your window (which in itself was a brave move, considering the raven could have struck at any time…!) less than 6 feet away and busted out laughing, know he was way out-lensed!
And yeah, that “Ravens…” dude was indeed creepy. But he did at least take a few pictures after startling us all with his presence. 🙂
–SkidMarks
Ahh.. thanks for the assist. I forgot his expression when the Beast’s barrel starting heading out the window (a classic). When I am in the backseat I can lean back further into the seat and keep most of the barrel out of site – you tend to get less of the “deer in the headlights” from other photographers sporting smaller glass. I missed that he took some pictures while he was standing there – I was focused on my shots and then heard him utter that creepy quote and walk away. Then there was the guy who got into the car with you guys while I was out stalking that bull elk – I’ll save that story for when I get those pictures posted.
Thanks for filling in the gaps!