April 14th

This morning was very grey and rather cold. There was no sun, so we again only left the house at 7.15 a.m.

No raven calls, instead two of the now breeding seagulls were having a duet, from the rooftops and one of the trees at the first field. 

Its being 'rubbish day' today, they were on the look-out to get at the thin food-waste bags and warning all others off.

Indeed, on the way back we saw that they had torn open a couple of those bags, with some waste spread into the road.

We walked the long way, doing some brief obedience exercises on the way, and at the corner of the ravens field and the quarry field, we saw about seven jackdaws on the ground, but no ravens. Nor were there any calls.

Then, into the ravens field, some calls came from far away, but no ravens turned up, even after I'd thrown some scraps into the top enclosure. There were hardly any dogs around, and no worken: they were cutting the grass at the bottom of the quarry field.

However, the gates to both the enclosures in the ravens field are now open, so anybody can walk in, especially inquisitive dogs! 

Yes, Miss Sophie walked in for a quick sniff around, but came out when called. 

She was on a very long training lead, for the first time, and we're working hard on her recalls. Being a clever girlie, she came out through the gate straight away, retracing her steps, and did not attempt to get out through the fencing to where I stood.

I believe these open gates have made the ravens very very suspicious, especially as the grass inside both enclosures has been cut. 

They probably observed these grass-cutting machines and their human operators going back and forth in their 'safe' place, probably scaring them off.

We'll still go every morning, to see what happens, but I believe the time of our appearance at the top enclosure has now become immaterial.