Nov 10th, 2009

The ravens had another surprise for us today!

 

We did manage to get out shortly after 7 a.m. It was cold, grey and drizzly - but more daylight, really, than the previous days.

A few other dog walkers in the distance, nothing to upset the ravens.

 

At the top of the big field, before crossing the path into the ravens' field - they were waiting for us again. Again, it was the timid one which came first. After I'd distributed a few scraps - also one to Madame! - what happened next was another jaw-dropping moment:

Two more ravens appeared, from the toddlers' playground! They kept well back, and the first two flapped at them a bit.

 

I didn't want to start a fight, nor did I want to encourage these new two by feeding them as well. So I walked off, taking the opportunity to give Leo a cuddle. He's a lovely, cream-coloured Labradoodle whom we've known since he was a puppy. He's on the lead, he had damaged a muscle in his hind leg.

I had turned my back on the ravens, all four of them, and after Leo and his dad walked off, Madame got into the spinney and I walked into the ravens' field on my own - followed by 'my' two ravens!

 

I kept to the usual feeding routine: a few scraps in the open field, some more into the fenced-off plot, thrown from each side of the square as we walk round. This time, I tried to see how close the ravens would dare to come to pick them up. 

I stood right next to the fence and threw the scrap in, about a foot away from me. That exercise was inconclusive however, as Madame was sniffing at the fence, right behind my back! It certainly made the ravens extra-cautious.

However, as soon as I stepped a couple of feet back and called Madame off, they hopped to it and scoffed what was there. Again, the timid one seems to wait for the bold one to feed first.

 

Walking back on the tennis court side of the spinney, the ravens followed, and when they got nothing, they flew up to sit on the shed roof. One actually ventured after us onto the grass next to the bowling green, but gave up as no food appeared. 

It was also, perhaps, a bit too close to the toddlers' playground - where I didn't see ravens this time, because Karen appeared, preceeded by a very happy, bouncing Bas! That Bas would scare any raven off. I roped Karen in, to tell me if any ravens approach her in Pontcanna Fields.

 

Well - that was an interesting morning!

Tomorrow we'll be out early again, to see what happens - and then I'll try and find out if they will come to me when I come back from the Cathedral, which is from the opposite direction. 

This will be a different time, more like mid-morning, and I'll obviously not be wearing my dog-walking clothes.