Town Raven

Town Raven
In flight

ITS A DIARY !

This is a diary, or rather, field notes written up each day, with the latest entry at the top.

To get the full story, start at the bottom entry in the archive, and read upwards.
Then read the current diary entries from the bottom up as well.


Once you've got the full story, just visit and read the new story for the day!

Enjoy!

Location Map

Location Map
This shows where we walk and meet the ravens
The yellow and pink squiggly lines are two walks we take. The yellow one is the one we usually do. The squigglyness indicates how Madame visits her several important sniffing check-points!
We stop several times to feed the ravens, and you can see where they come from.

If you right-click on the image and open it in a new tab, you can then zoom in to see more details.

Saturday 19 December 2009

Dec 19th


The thermometer may have been lower this morning, but it didn't feel as horrid as yesterday: there was hardly any wind at all when we went out at about 7.45 a.m. 
It was much lighter than yesterday - the sky was clear, with a pale, greenish-yellow cast in the East.

We had heard some raven calls earlier - but none when we came into Llandaff Fields, nor did we see any ravens until we came to the spinney. 
There, we heard one raven call, and saw him sit on the highest tree in the spinney - and his companion came flying over from the allotment side, to perch next to him.

We entered the ravens field, and both came to the open ground. It was 'my' young pair - it was sufficiently light to make out the 'Roman' nose of one of them.
Again, as now customary, they came to within a yard an a half in the open field, but kept further away in the enclosure. 
Again, they wait until we turn our backs before they pick up the food.

We left the 'more-food' way, because I was hoping to encounter more ravens. My pair followed us, again flying rather than hopping, and after the first few scraps in the open field they called - and the other young pair arrived, from the side of the old quarries. 
All four kept their distance, a good four yards, in spite of Madame being on her lead, and in spite of the absence of any other dogs.

At one point, as we walked on back home, all four followed us, walking in a line four abreast, spread out. I loved that!

I think I can now assume that the ravens field is the territory of my young pair, and that the big field is regarded as place for all hungry ravens to come and get what is offered, like a sort of more communal, shared raven territory.
We'll see if the next few days support this. 

It will be cold - again! - and it seems to me that Madame, while enjoying her rolling-about on the frosty grass, is not so keen on being out in the cold as she used to be ...

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Another excellent bit of writing! But Yma, what happened to the Bold One and his companion?

yma said...

REalwest - I wish I knew!
I have the suspicion that they prefer the other huge park, called Pontcanna Fields. It is very close, but Madame doesn't like to go there in the morning.

I believe that is where they are because when they sometimes do turn up, that is the direction they come from. If that is their territory, they have lots of waste bins to scavenge from, so won't be short of food.

They have been turning up now and then, especially during this cold spell, so i hope to see my bold one again.
He is a character!

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