Crowblack

This, apparently, is a hooded crow. And I now understand that the fact I took this in Britain today locates me fairly precisely. I assumed it to be some variant of a jackdaw; I started trawling the Internet and the first site I found was a detailed analysis of how to distinguish these birds from jackdaws. Oh, OK

On digging deeper, I find that the carrion crows that I have known all my life occupy only the central part of Western Europe. In the surrounding territory that includes most of Scandinavia, Eastern Europe, Turkey, Greece, Italy, Ireland and, strangely, extreme Western Scotland and its islands, the same ecological niche is occupied by these guys and, on the whole, they don't live in the same place. It's not that long since I visited both Greece and Ireland, but I must have disregarded them

We are 150 miles further north west and this is the ferry port at Oban, waiting for a boat to Mull, where I'm now writing from the far north west of the island. Of course we have seen dramatic scenery all the way, some lovely skies, a fine first sunset, seascapes and the silhouettes of islands on the horizon. From the ferry we got fine views of Duart Castle, commanding the entrance to the Sound of Mull from a raised position on the island shore. Our son spent some time here a couple of years ago and restored the timber work in one of the castle windows; it looked fine from a half mile out :-)

All of this I have photographed, of course, but I think this journal may fill its quota of wild landscapes in the next few weeks, and it is the corvidae I'll be thinking of as I gratefully embrace sleep on the darkest night I have experienced for some years