Ravens Update

This morning's raven count was one of the occasionally easy ones, so apart from some frantic counting when a couple of the large groups left and there were ravens all over the sky, I was able to just sit back and enjoy it, while listening to the dawn chorus.
The total was 271, which is the greatest April count so far, the previous greatest being 199 in 2010.

As I arrived for the count, at 05:30, the only birds singing in the near darkness were a couple of stonechats, but these were soon joined by skylarks, dunnocks and blackbirds. It was nice to see the linnets back on site after their winter absence.

Other species noted were meadow pipit, wren, robin, song thrush, crossbill, carrion crow, buzzard and pheasant.