Raven !! (1 Viewer)

Always have an hours birding , casually , while walking the dog after getting home from work , here in the Hambleden Valley , S.Oxon/Bucks border . This evening ther were loads of buzzards around , some full feathered , probably juvs judging by the amount of chasing and switchbacking they were doing , and a few slightly tatty ( still ! ) adults , and more than a handful of Red Kites as well , they always seem so aggressive toward the Buzzards , wonder why , anyway , while watching all the fun I noticed a couple of large crows chasing what I initially thought was one of the buzzards , but with a second look it seemed all wrong , the general shape , the very fingery wings ( quite long fingers ) position of the wings in relation to the body and looking all black made me think again , it turned out to be one of our Ravens , I've heard them before calling loudly but never seen one here 'til today , al last I can put one on my county list as seen not just heard , really chuffed . It hung around for quite a while easily outpacing the crows , almost playing with them , then headed over the ridge to the area where they seem to be living for the past couple of years . I know plenty of guys who work on the estate who have never seen them before , they know they are there but they seem quite elusive , so this was a good sighting !! . B B B

Ashley

Nice one Ashley,

Ravens DO seem to have a sense of fun!

Andy.

Excellent Ashley. I´ll be popping down there, are you free?

We don't get a huge variety of birds passing through landlocked Worcestershire compared to other counties, but our resident birds go someway to making up for that.
Ravens we can do.
From July onwards into the winter I regularly observe Ravens from my garden, usually in pairs, the largest flock was 17 birds. I can still make Norfolk birders jealous with that one.
I don't know if your "Spanish" kites in the Chilterns are more aggresive but in Wales it always seems the Buzzards are mobbing the kites.

MOOSE said:

I don't know if your "Spanish" kites in the Chilterns are more aggresive but in Wales it always seems the Buzzards are mobbing the kites.

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The Chiltern kites were originally brought in from Spain and Sweden , but that was years ago , they now use the Chiltern chicks for repopulation elsewhere so I am not too sure where they get this aggressive behaviour from but I have seen them many times , including this evening harrying the buzzards every time they go up for a fly around , as soon as the buzzards appear , calling and circling out comes 2 or 3 kites on patrol and they go over to them right away chasing , turning over and showing their talons trying to nip tail feathers etc , they could be playing but I don't think so ......as for 17 Ravens , wow , that must have been a sight to behold !!

Ashley.

helenol said:

Excellent Ashley. I´ll be popping down there, are you free?

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Hi Helen , I can't promise Raven every day , it's taken me 3 years to see the first one , but it was worth it , at least half as big again as the Carrion crows that were chasing it :eek!: