SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
A few years ago, Edith Mair and her husband attempted to protect their bay window from a pair of pesky ravens by setting up an owl decoy and chicken wire.

A family of ravens is seen on the ledge of a bay window at Edith Mair's house. She said five baby ravens hatched there April 24. One of them fell to the ground and was rescued by her son.-

When that failed to prevent the birds from nesting on the window sill, the couple gave in and allowed the visitors to build a home there. While the ravens were missing in action last year, Mair welcomed them back this spring - this time, by helping save one of their baby birds from a dangerous fall.

"This year they came ... and spent a whole day making a nest," said Mair. "But they made it about twice the size of two years ago."

Although she loves having the visitors, she said their nest-building makes quite the mess.

Mair couldn't open her window or else she'd scare the birds away, and said she has delayed cleaning the window sill as the birds still return to the nest once in a while despite having flown the coop already.

On April 24, Mair said five eggs hatched in the nest. She remembers the day clearly because it was also her grandson's ninth birthday.

"I said, 'Oh! The babies have arrived on your birthday. What a nice birthday gift,'" she recalled. But as they "grew and they grew," Mair believes there was no longer enough room in the nest to house all five safely on the edge of her window sill.

One morning over breakfast, Mair says she and her sons heard a "bang" outside.

"I thought, 'Oh my goodness, what's that?'" said Mair.

Her son Norm went down to the window to see what the fuss was all about and discovered one of the baby ravens had fallen to the ground from the nest, leaving Mair wondering if it was hurt.

"What can we do?" she said she wondered at the time about the fallen bird. "We have the bush at the back of our house and there's always a fox coming through."

She worried the mother and father raven would lose one of their babies unless someone did something.

"So we called my other son who lives in town and he came over and got the ladder and picked him up, put him in a box," said Mair.

Norm then climbed a ladder and returned the bird to the nest safe and sound.

"(The raven) got back up and he stayed in there until they were just ready," she said.

About six weeks later, the ravens had all flown the coop. But Mair says the birds are never far away.

"I hear them every night," said Mair, adding she always says hello when they stop by her home. "They have a bit of fun and they come back and they land on the rooftop of the window here."

Her husband, who has dementia, gets to see them too.

"He's in a dementia centre, but I take him home every day and we always say, 'Come and see the ravens,'" she said. "I take him for a few hours and we go for a walk around Niven Lake every day."

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