A Bird in the Hand

Death Valley Fowl Play

Out in the West, where two birds in the Bush are worth one in the Hand,
If Now that Ol’ Bush is foisted, Eastward, and given Command
Our resulting Fowl Policy is soon sunk in the Sand.

Not infrequently unobserved is the drama played out by members of the Corvus family, which are rarely unwatched (this may have largely escaped your inattention).
Yes, yes, speaking more positively, it is that trickster of the West (that nattering nabob of the National Park Natural creatures)- the lusty Raven- which conspires to relieve us our victuals and other Stock and Store, that is the object of my timely attention. And he is quick to appear, whenever there is the faintest notice of crumbs and more substantial portions of our daily fare, upon which our fortunes rely. So, rather than waste time describing the various humdrum movements of the earth in Death Valley, I will devote my entire daily effort to regaling you regarding the interactions of this lusty bird with our resolute Geological Team, which just terminated travels in this Jewel of the West.
Our team of several Utah geologists and their consorts had just made a determined three-day effort to organize the various slicing, upheavals, faulting, sinkings, impingements, and volcanic bombardments of this portion of the dynamic Western USA. My own personal effort was to find that point on the ground surface, which indicated the change from the older NW-SE shearing and stressing of the Pliocene and older rocks to the more modern N-S faulting in Death Valley, so as to relate this locus to the changes occurring on the edge of the Basin and Range province (which is the same as the Western edge of the Colorado Plateau CP). However things kept getting in my way, namely Ravens.
NOTE: The Photos for this epic may occur below the text, or in the links at right.