Diane Phelps Budden and Shade the raven are celebrities at the Highlands Center for Natural History in Prescott. Whenever they are scheduled to appear, the tickets are immediately sold out.
“The parents like to bring their kids to my story hour,” said Phelps Budden, the author of “Shade: a Story of a Very Smart Raven.”
But, she said she can not take credit for the crowd. “The reason the last event was a sell-out was because the bird was there,” she said with a laugh.
Phelps Budden is promoting her two books for children: “Shade: a Story of a Very Smart Raven” and The Un-common Raven: One smart bird.”
Phelps Budden is not the owner of Shade. Emily Cory is. Shade stays on Cory’s arm the whole time. Everybody likes that. Cory will also provide a PowerPoint presentation about ravens.
“All the adults love that,” Phelps said.
Phelps Budden, who lives in Sedona, said she got the idea for the first book during a hot air balloon ride on Mother’s Day. The operator was telling her about his daughter who was doing raven research using ravens as St. Bernards for search and rescue. Phelps Budden was interested and contacted Cory.
“Her thought is that ravens would be very capable of that. They have good eyesight, they are trainable and really fast,” Phelps Budden said. “They are social and can develop relationships – and [Shade] has.”
Cory is a graduate student in general psychology at the University of Arizona.
“I wrote the story based on a true tale, but I had to put an ending on that for kids, how Shade goes out in the desert in Arizona and finds someone who is scared and lost,” Phelps Budden said. “Shade comes home and tells Emily. Everyone is happy.”
Her second book was named Panelists Pick for children’s tiles at the Southwest Book of the Year competition in 2013. It is a non-fiction work for older children 6th grade and up. Among other things, it covers how a raven gets its food and mates, their problem-solving skills, physical characteristics and behavior.
Phelps Budden says she has developed a relationship with ravens around her home in Sedona who depend on her for their daily ration of Cheetos. “If I don’t get out there before a certain time, they start circling the house,” she said.
Since African White Necked Ravens are protected, Cory bought Shade from a breeder. She came in from New York to Arizona as a carry-on. The person who brought Shade took her into the women’s restroom and put down the changing table to show how to hand feed a baby raven.
“Boy did we get a lot of funny looks as women came into the restroom!” Cory laughed.
Phelps Budden’s books are available at the Highland Nature Center, Amazon or the Raven Gift Store in downtown Prescott. QCBN
Leave a Reply