Sunday, Feb 28th

The predicted storm and rain had moved across Northern France and then up the English channel - so it was dry, rather cold and windy, but not bad at all. The sun was again invisible behind the clouds, but the songbirds were singing to each other well before sunrise. There were even a few raven calls, soft and far away.

I left the house at 7.20 a.m.. The ground was muddy and Llandaff Fields was empty of dog walkers, except for Alison and Jack-the-Westie. We walked to the top of the big field - no raven calls, not any ravens to be seen. 

Then, I saw one sitting int he top branches of one of the trees in the spinney. He only came down to the ground after Alison and Jack had moved on towards the little arboretum - it was one of my young pair. His companion followed after he'd called.

More raven calls came from Pontcanna Fields, and the bold pair came flying in. While I was throwing scraps to these two pairs, the quarry pair arrived as well.

All ravens cawed to me as soon as they'd landed. That has not happened before.

Today, the ravens were in fighting mood. First, the bold one flapped his wings at and over one of the young pair, to get the scrap he'd eyed. The young pair, both of them, then assumed the juvenile begging posture, as if to indicate that they were only little ravens, placating the bold one. 

Meanwhile, his companion again fluffed up her feathers and, in the begging position, cawed and clicked her beak together simultaneously. The quarry pair, as usual now, kept their distance.

Then - the crows appeared again! 

One of them has some sprinkling of white feathers on his body, underneath the wings. He is the one who appeared first the last time, and now today as well. His calls got the other crows flying in. 

This time, the ravens were a bit more aggressive towards the crows: whenever one got near a scrap, they flapped at them, moving to that scrap. 

As the crows did not seem to be deterred by this, and as the ravens had already had quite a bit of food, I decided to move away and go back home. No raven followed, they all flew off in the directions they had come from, then the crows flew off as well.

I'll investigate tomorrow if an earlier start will keep the crows away. After all, the sun rises now just before 7 a.m., thus I am about half an hour late, compared to the beginning of January, and using the quality of daylight as yardstick.