Nov 25th

Yes! I was right!

I found my bold raven!

We left the house earlier, around 7.30. It was light, some sun already out behind the clouds. During the night we had lots of very heavy rain, but it was dry when we came out. The wind was very strong (up to 30 mph) and it felt perishingly cold!

We used a different route into Llandaff Fields, which got us to the fields at the foot of the steep slope with the old quarries. No ravens anywhere, no raven calls. As we came to the far end of this field, one raven came and sat in the top branches of the oaks lining the steep path going up to Cardiff Road. Then another came, also sitting in that oak.

The first raven then flew down, as we got closer, and sat on the derelict stone drinking fountain. He watched. as we crossed into this field, which is really a small arboretum, and he then came to the ground, as did the other raven. I gave them a few scraps there and then - and saw that these were my ravens!

They followed us across into the ravens field, and sat on the fence posts of the first enclosure, where I haven't fed them at all. Giving some more scraps I noticed that my bold raven was rather diffident at first. We then went up to our original enclosure - but on the way, Archie, Duffy and Otis came bouncing up, so the ravens fled to our enclosure.

There, I reassured myself that these were indeed my ravens: their behaviour was as I've recorded below. The bold one, while still a bit diffident, scoffed as much as he could get, and flew off a few times to make his food-hiding holes in the open field. He made these in roughly the same areas as before.

Two ravens flew over us, quite high, but my ravens didn't bother looking up.

We went to the spinney the 'no-more-food'-way, and the bold raven followed us to the grassy patch in front of the Parks Dept shed. He had done just that before, the young pair never has.

He got some more scraps. Then he had a drink from the big puddle and got on with the rest of his day ...

I'm so glad I've found him again! I believe he was rather diffident to start with because he'd not seen me or got anything from me for quite a few days.

I also think that he and his companion are getting upset by the increasing number of lovely, bouncy dogs, who try to chase them. This is due to day light starting so much later now, and us dog walkers always get bunched together during these months.

Tomorrow, we'll get out earlier and use the same route as today. I hope my bold raven picks us up where he did this morning.