With
a reasonable chance of suitable weather, I decided to attempt November’s raven
count this morning and as things turned out, apart from a shower and some hill
fog, it proved to be okay.
Things
didn’t go entirely to plan, however, as on parking the car, on Mynydd Aberdar
and getting my stuff together, prior to walking down the parish road to the
counting spot, I found that the dreaded birders’ nightmare had come true and I
had left my bins in the house. Debating whether to give up and go home, I
decided that as I was there, I might as well give it a try and if it failed for
lack of the bins, I could hopefully try again.
As
it was going to be naked eye only, I opted for a spot, a little higher up the
road than I usually use, so that the ravens would pass right over me, the
danger being that if they took a route further to the S.West, they might be
lost against the darkness of the valley.
As
I walked away from the car, at 06:10, I heard a raven almost overhead, but the
sky was too dark for me to see it, so I counted it as one, though there may
have been others with it and immediately after, I heard another calling, with
just the hint of a response from an accompanying bird, so three confirmed.
At
the chosen counting spot, I waited in silence for twenty minutes, before the
next birds started flying over, thankful for the delay, which allowed the sky
to lighten enough for me to see them. By 06:55, my total had reached 77, then a
shower began and hill fog lowered onto the hill top. For around 15 minutes,
while it rained and remained foggy, not a single raven flew out and I wondered
whether they were all out, but as soon as the rain stopped and fog lifted,
there was a mass exodus of around 50 birds, followed by several smaller groups,
so that by 07:30, when it all finished, the total was 202, which is the second
highest for November.
All
through the count, I could hear redwings calling overhead and also fieldfares,
which I at first thought were also overhead, but soon realised were calling
from within the bracken on the hill slope around me. As the daylight increased,
I could see them flying out of the bracken in small groups and heading off. I
have seen this behaviour before, while counting the ravens from the old count
point up on the moorland above.
I
saw only one woodcock flying in to roost, but my attention was fixed to the sky
and any low flying woodcock, hugging the ground would have been missed.
The count successfully completed, despite the lack of bins, U packed up and got away quickly, afraid that I might see something interesting in the distance that I would need the bins to identify.
Butter Waxcap
False Chanterelle.JPG)
Wrinkled Club
unknown
unknown
