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 26 December 2009

BOXING DAY


Thats more like it! 
There was rain overnight, and it was milder this morning, with wind from the West. We got out about 8 a.m., with both dogs.

Unfortunately, what looked like perfectly normal mud on the playing fields turned out to be ice - so walking was still unsafe. 
We made it to the top of the big field, where I heard a lovely soft squawk on my right.

And there they were - two ravens, sitting on the young ash trees, low down and close to the footpath. I stood still, and they came swooping down. 
It was my bold raven and his companion!

I fed them - which was a bit awkward because Bas thought I was throwing the scraps for him, and, although on the lead, he always tried to get them ... Madame is far more civilised!

But even the huge Bas did not deter my bold raven, who again tried to get as many scraps into his crop as he possibly could.
Then a young pair flew in, from the Horse Chestnut Avenue - and my bold raven took extreme objection.
He and his companion swooped on them, squawking and flapping their wings - it looked as if they were beating the young pair with their wings.
Those two stayed well away from us, didn't dare to come even within fifteen yards to get some scraps - and then flew off. Thus I couldn't tell which one of the two young pairs they were.

Between them, my bold raven pair and Madame and Bas got quite a lot to eat!
I am glad I had brought so much - these two ravens must have been quite hungry. Because of the frozen ground they couldn't get at their food caches since Monday. 

I am also happy because obviously my bold raven knew exactly who I was, and what I was there for. Having big Bas with me did not confuse him, and although he was a bit nervous at the start, having that big dog so close, he soon realised he wasn't going to be chased away and came to within a yard to pick up the scraps, His companion, as always, kept a bit further away.

If one could hug a raven, I'd have hugged my bold one!

Back to 'normal' tomorrow, Bas is going home tonight. The weather should be acceptable - and hopefully the bit of extra sunshine we had for a couple of hours might have got rid of the rest of the ice. 

We'll see!

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