May 6th - Day of the General Elections in the UK

Another grey morning, feeling mild-ish and very damp. In fact, there was quite a drizzle.

We left the house at 6.45 a.m. and went into Llandaff Fields. The reason was that I wanted to check if the ravens still keep the ravens field under observation - and I wanted to see how well Miss Sophie did her exercises with other dogs present.

In the first field, we met Karen and Bas. Sophie was at first not fussed by Bas, and loved greeting Karen. 

Sadly, I made a huge mistake. 

I let go of the 5 yard long trailing lead when Sophie was greeting Karen. I've let Miss Sophie go on the trailing lead for a week now. I did not think there'd be any problem.

... and then Miss Sophie took off.

She was after squirrels. She rushed into Pontcanna Fields, no commands to come back penetrated her mind. 

Karen and I - and Bas! - rushed after her, all the way down the huge playing fields, across into the even bigger part. 

There, Miss Sophie saw a group of people with two dogs. 

She changed course and rushed up to them. They were kind enough to get her lead, so Miss Sophie was finally back under my control.

So - no ravens!

May 5th

It was mostly grey, with some hint of sunshine, when we left the house at 6.40 a.m. The wind from the NE had not yet picked up. Thus it felt less chilly than I expected - but chilly enough so that gloves were still needed ...

We went straight into Pontcanna Fields, seeing and hearing single ravens in the distance. They vanished when we approached, so we did our walk and exercises.

Some new raven photos, taken on May 3rd, 2010

These photos are of one of the young pair. I have described one of those ravens as having a 'roman' nose.

See for yourselves why I used that description:

Here he is looking towards us - note the different shape of the 'brow' compared to the bold raven:

Here he is eyeing a scrap:

Here he is making a hole to hide his scrap:

Note how deep the beak goes into the ground.

Hopefully I'll be able to take more photos as the weather gets warmer - provided the rain keeps to times when we're not out in the park!

Photos of the ravens' nest, taken on May 2nd, 2010

Here are some photos of the ravens' nest:

The tree with the ravens' nest from a distance:

The nest is the 'blob in the centre of this photo:

Zooming in a bit more:

And here ...:

...  that is a raven in the nest!!

We saw him fly in and land - no doubt possible!

May 4th

It was far less chilly when we went out at 6.50 a.m. than it had been forecast. 

We went directly to Pontcanna Fields and did some of our exercises. Miss Sophie is learning fast, but dogs and squirrels in her field of vision still distract her a lot.

I threw some scraps to a lone raven - one of the young pair. Then he was joined by his companion. He hadn't called, though.

However, they then both called - and suddenly we were surrounded by three dozen crows. I counted them. 

The ravens tried to scare them off, without success.

They then retreated in view of this huge crowd. 

So we retreated home as well.