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.

Tuesday 5 January 2010

Jan 5th


I have a raging cold - its been going on for a few days, and has been getting worse since yesterday. 
So we stayed at home today, especially as snow was coming down early this morning. 
We had not heard many raven calls at that time, and in view of their happy scavenging of rubbish bin contents, I decided that indoor games for me and Madame were the order of the day.

As there are no current raven encounters to note today, I am taking this opportunity of reporting two incidents which have not found their way into these diary notes:

1) Some time ago, in November, when Madame was still well, we'd just finished feeding the bold pair in the ravens field. We were going towards the spinney, Madame being off her lead, when the bold raven swooped over her, length-wise, from tail to nose. He was about half a yard above her.

She was not bothered, and it did not look like an attack to me.

Later, I was told by another dog walker that in early autumn (before I started my feeding experiments), the same happened to her dog, a young, small Border Collie called Tilly.

I wonder why it happened, and I also wonder if, come the breeding season, it will happen again.

2) Last week, coming back from a brief foray into the ravens field, one of the young pair flew to sit on a low branch on one of the young maples at the spinney, next to the footpath. 
I'd just turned to the spinney to see where Madame had gone - and there he was - at the height of my eyes, about a yard away.

What a magnificent bird: huge, glossy, unafraid, looking at me ... I looked back at him, and stood there for a few minutes, in admiration.

Then I had to get Madame - and regretfully, because of the freezing temperatures, I have not been able at all to bring my camera: how I would have loved to take a few photos of him!

More snow and ice predicted, for today, tonight and tomorrow ... no end in sight for the deep freeze here ...

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hello Yma - gee I'm sorry to read about you're not feeling well - lots of zinc and vitamins C, D and A should have you feeling better in no time at all!
Until then, PLEASE don't venture out to see the Ravens; they obviously get their food from other places as well!
And if Madame didn't seem perterbed by the Bold Raven's swoop over her, I suspect it was not an attack at all!
Rest up and feel better soon my friend!

yma said...

Hiya, realwest - I'd rattle if someone were to shake me, taking so many tablets - zinc, Vit C - and elderberry pills!
Its just one of those things one's gotta put up with.

I think the bold raven might perhaps just have been rather playful, as opposed to agressive. It looked wonderful though, and made me realise again what truly big birds they are!

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