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.

Friday 4 December 2009

Dec 4th


It was a very cold night, and when we left the house at 7.40 a.m., there was a slight mist over Llandaff Fields, the grass was heavily frosted and the temperature was just above freezing. There was no wind, it was dry, but too cloudy for an impressive sunrise.
The waning moon was still very impressive, big and pale, visible behind the veil of mist. Later, the clouds in the West had a beautiful rose-grey tinge.

Madame coped very well, there was no episode of being even slightly off-balance, but I didn't want to overdo it, so we only made it to the top of the big field. I did let her off for a few rolls on the frosty grass - she so loves doing that!

As for the ravens ...!

To start with, we heard some calls, coming from beyond Llandaff Fields. There was one poking holes in the first rugby pitch - i assumed it was my bold one, but it was still too dark to see properly. Still, I threw him a scrap. He waited to pick it up until we were well past him.

But then something totally unexpected and extraordinary happened.

As we rounded the top of the big field - two ravens came swooping down from the trees at the spinney, and they made soft croaking sounds, as if to welcome us back.
These were my young ravens. I fed them, and they walked up quite closely, to within a couple of yards.

Then - another pair appeared, and my young pair just accepted them without fuss. Just as I threw them all some scraps - two more ravens appeared!

So there was this group of six ravens, all on the ground at the top of the big field, all expecting scraps. They kept away from us a bit further than my young pair, even my bold raven who was one of that group.
They got all I had with me - Madame getting some scraps as well.

I could not believe this extraordinary event.
I've never seen all six together in one group - they are usually spread out across the whole huge area of Llandaff Fields.
I think the cold and the hard ground made them somewhat desperate for food, any food - and I think they must have observed me feeding the one or other pair.

It was wonderful! I only wish I had had more scraps with me.

We went home pretty smartly after that, because my fingers were frozen, and Madame had collected little balls of ice under her pads - the frosty stuff from the grass collects on the fur between her toes and makes it uncomfortable for her to walk. It was difficult to remove them with my icy hands.

I wonder what the ravens will do tomorrow. There will be rain, and it will be a bit warmer.

We'll have to wait and see ...!

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