Nov 11th, 2009

Armistice Day:

More surprises!

We were just a bit late - 7.15 a.m., but it was glum, grey, cold and slightly drizzly: a morning one would prefer to stay indoors! 

Thus thought a lot of the usual dog walkers ...  

The ravens met us in the open bit of the ravens' field. Again, the bold one tried to scoff as much as he could, the timid one letting him. Madame still trying to chase them - i think I'll have to train her not to do so, with scraps as rewards, naturally.

We ended up walking round the enclosure, as usual now, ravens inside, us outside. However - as we were at the far end, another one came, flying above tree height, coming from the direction of the toddlers' playground and Pontcanna Fields. 

'My' ravens stopped what they were doing (i.e. watching me) and flapped onto  the fence posts, squawking. The other raven increased his height and flew off. 

Now I'm intrigued: will we see more ravens? Or will they keep to their territories?

Another thing I noticed is that while the ravens do now hop closer, they still prefer me turning my back to them so they can pick up the scraps. Hopping closer, they make themselves look rather slim when they are in the open field, or when they need to get to about two feet distance. 

This morning, a nice man with two teenage labs came round. I've seen him around sicne this summer, his labs are a male black and a golden female. They are nice, but boisterous. We chatted and walked round again - the ravens flew off. However, as we got back into the big field, and separated, the bold raven did approach again. we did, after all, go round the way under the trees ... Since Madame was off the lead and rootling around, I didn't feed him. I've noticed that Madame is now going to look for the holes they make to hide their scraps - and steal them, if she can. Bad Madame!