Country diary: The ravens are in the quarry, nest-building already

Dinorwig, Gwynedd: The early breeders have started - an old Welsh verse tells of red throats in the ravens' nest by the end of FebruaryThe ravens are back and displaying. A blue-sky morning, frost on the ground, and they arrow in from the west, returning from Ravenopolis, the huge forest roost behind Malltraeth Bay (formerly their home was in Siliwen woods between Roman Camp and Afon Menai). Rock walls amplify the creak of wings as they rise to a ramshackle nest above Allt Ddu quarry. For days they've been flying back and forth to oak woods opposite, fetching sticks and heather stems, weaving them in to shore up their nest's tottering structure.Derek Ratcliffe notes that the raven "is generally believed to pair for life", and considers 25-30 to be their potential maximum age. These two may well be the ones to which I could approach within yards at the top of my back garden years ago. They became used to my presence, conversed with me, tolerated me nearby. Each morning at my front door, I'd hold out food (my son ate meat, so there'd be bacon rind, pork fat, chicken skin as well as toast crusts) and call them. One or both would soon appear, swooping down with hissing pinions to snatch the proffered scraps. I loved these birds, imitated their speech, seemed to be understood. Their strangely irised brown eyes met and held mine. After seven years I moved away, but offered advice on how to keep the relationship going. Continue reading...