Raven

This raven was flying over south Kendal as I went for my lunchtime walk down to the River Kent and back. They are a regularly sight now over the town, no longer confined to the uplands and coast. This one caught my attention with his deep, throaty cronking call. The flight silhouette is instantly distinguishable from other crow species. The raven is bigger by far than rooks and crows, bigger even than a buzzard, it has a wedge shaped tail, relatively long, narrow, fingered wings and a heavy bill.

Ravens have made quite a comeback in Britain since legislative protection in 1981. They were formerly persecuted and their decline historically came particularly with the use of the shotgun by farmers and gamekeepers. A large bird is too easy a target. This history makes them wary still, and it is difficult to get close. This is the first respectable photograph I have taken in the last 18 months, with the exception of a pair of very confiding birds we saw at the highest point of La Palma in the Canaries. The tameness of these individuals was explained by the arrival of a National Park warden with a dish of offal for their daily feed.

I have often thought that if I was reincarnated as a bird, I would like to be a raven. The only disadvantage would be the food, for while they have a wide-ranging diet, they are most partial to carrion. Our coastal birds in South Cumbria have undoubtedly benefitted from the practice of keeping sheep on saltmarshes, for while the sheep become very canny to the rise and fall of the tides, they occasionally do get caught out as you will see if you take the train along the coastal line from Arnside to Ulverston.

It's easy to anthropomorphise, but when you watch ravens, there does appear to be something joyful about them. They revel in the power of aerobatic flight, frequently flipping over and flying upside down as they range from coast to mountain top, all the while chatting to one another in their deep, guttural voices.

I hadn't planned to post tonight, but I couldn't resist my first raven blip.

The bird list for 2012 moved on to 48 with goldfinch, grey wagtail and goosander.