On one of the telephone poles there was a Raven “clicking” at me. According to Cornell, only females make this clicking/knocking sound.
“…Common Ravens can make a wide array of sounds. Recent evidence suggests that there are local dialects and individual-specific calls so that the total vocal repertoire may be virtually limitless…Knocking. Ravens give a rapid percussion-like type of call that sounds like a woodpecker drumming or a stick thrust in a spinning bicycle wheel. Typically about a second long, it consists of a dozen or so notes with the final ‘percussion’ of a lower pitch than the first, and it is commonly followed with a bill snap. A second knocking call consists of just 2 knocks in rapid succession, and a third call is of 3 knocks. The knocking calls are given only by females, and at any time of year after about the first year of life…There appears to be geographic variation in this call…” Cool!
