Raven chat

Flanders Moss NNR

On Flanders our ravens have built up their nest, laid eggs and may well be feeding chicks already. Hard work with the ‘Beast from the East’ providing challenging conditions but they are working to a plan. At the end of the winter many animals are in poor condition having already struggled through difficult conditions so heavy snow at this time can threaten many animals’ survival. Some don’t make it and this is what ravens are banking on. They time their breeding by starting early so that they are feeding chicks when there are dead animals lying around. Good tactics so long as you yourselves can actually survive the harsh cold and snow fall. When ravens have eggs it is only the female that incubates them but the male will crouch over the top of them holding his wings out to shelter them. I can imagine that he will have been quite busy doing this over the previous few weeks with all of the snow.

Traditionally ravens are bird of ill omen and are often associated with death. But I love to see them as they are always doing something interesting and are so inquisitive. As I have walked across the moss I have seen ravens that are flying across the moss divert from their route to come and circle over me for a few minutes to see if I am doing something interesting and then carry on on their way. As they do this their calls change and I like the thought that they are telling ravens in the surrounding area ” look out, that funny bloke out on the bog again”

 

Potential raven food.