Image: “Raven Says Goodnight to Sun 1,” by Alice B. Clagett, 5 October 2024, CC BY-SA 4.0 International, from “Awakening with Planet Earth,” https://awakeningwithplanetearth.com ..

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Dear Ones,

As you may recall, yesterday afternoon there was the bad news about Striker Bird injuring Raven’s eye after an aerial battle between a strong young male Cooper’s Hawk and Raven in the Chatsworth Nature Preserve near my home.

Early yesterday morning I saw a Striker Bird perched no the phone line by the house across the street from me. He was extremely rude … brash, sarcastic, and cruel.

So I went to the back yard fence and told the Ravens down the hill about what had happened. Then I heard a very high flying Raven greet me as it surveyed the wider geographical area around my neighborhood.

From the trees across the street I heard two Striker Birds pretending to be Pretty Birds. They were calling out ‘Pretty Bird’ but their voices did not sound at all pretty. They sounded sarcastic. Tomfoolery was afoot.

Then a very strong and graceful pair of Ravens … a male and a female, went by from down the hill and patrolled past the grove of trees in which I had last heard Raven after yesterday’s battle.

They said not to call out to Raven; that more than I knew depended on maintaining silence. So I did my outdoor work quite silently.

In the afternoon three Ravens … maybe the genteel pair of Ravens from down the hill and my own kindhearted, gentle-mannered Raven? … were flying happily over the Nature Preserve. Then one spotted the Cooper’s Hawk and cried out ‘Hawk’! 

One Raven flew to the trees across the street. The other two … the Raven pair … began to engage the Hawk midair. It takes at least two Ravens to safely engage a male Cooper’s Hawk in aerial battle. That is because of the size difference between Ravens and Cooper’s Hawks.

The Ravens were holding their own in the battle. But then three Striker Birds appeared beneath the battling foursome. When Striker Birds get ready to battle, they do aerial acrobatics just beneath the battle scene. You can see them doing aerial pirouettes and whirligigs, for instance, with lightning fast changes of direction. Their fancy flying reminds me a little of the way Mockingbirds sometimes shows off, but Striker Birds are a little larger than Mockingbirds, and they are tan rather than grey.

I called out softly to the battling Ravens: Striker Bird!

Telepathically the male Raven said: ‘I see him!’ Then both Ravens flew to the safety of the trees across the street. The battle was over.

As they flew off I got a good look at one of the Striker Birds, which was perched on the phone line mid-street, quite close to me. It was facing the other two Striker Birds still in the air, as if it were the commander of the battle.

It was a brown bird with darker brown feathers mixed in. Its beak was straight, not curved. It was not the same bird at all as what is typically called a Striker Bird by Audubon. It was a little larger than a California Towhee.

Watch out for this bird. It is very dangerous. If it approaches, put your arms over your eyes.

In love, light and joy
This is Alice B. Clagett.
I Am of the Stars … and so are you!

Written and published on 14 May 2025

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License (CC BY-SA 4.0). Attribution: By Alice B. Clagett.
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harmony, peace, Raven, birds, Hawk,