June 18th

It was a very pleasant summer morning - sun, little white clouds on a blue sky, and no icy wind!

We left the house at 6.30 a.m. and went to the ravens field, first walking along the old quarries. The bottom half of the ravens field was occupied by quite a few lesser black-backed seagulls, and no ravens were around.

We got 'picked up' when we approached the wall where it joins up with the fence at the far, the allotment side. First only the bold raven's companion came. She was a bit careful, picking up the scraps. She had erected just a few feathers at the side of her head, it looked as if she had little ears. During the winter and the spring, she usually had all her head feathers erected.

Then, as we walked along, we heard a strangled squeak coming from the bottom of the ravens field: a raven had flown in amongst the sea gulls and swooped right across one of them, to scare them off. That sea gull had made this sound.

The sea gulls did go away, and the raven came swooping low over the ground when he saw me throw some more scraps to the bold raven's companion. It was the one of the quarry pair who has the couple of pale feathers on his chest.

Both were quite circumspect picking up the scraps - but the bold raven's companion was definitely coming closer to us than the quarry raven. He flew off towards the quarry side, and the first raven then went off across the wall and the allotments towards the ravens nest.

We still haven't seen any raven fledglings, but we did see one of the jackdaws feeding one jackdaw fledgling. So if the ravens have been successful raising their clutch, they ought to make an appearance soon.