Day 196 - Ravens Rock

on the lookout

I so nearly missed the opportunity to snatch a photo of this fine pair of ravens!

As you know, I recently proclaimed that I would try to get photo's of all the local corvids, for the blog.

This morning, when I went upstairs to get dressed for climbing, I immediately noticed the two large black birds in one of the trees across the way...we know there are two or three local ravens, and I've seen them in this tree before. 

Ravens look almost identical to crows, except that they're considerably bigger.  Size is not always easy to establish when the bird is a long way away, often in the sky and thus with no reference points...hence our long running debate over which ones are ravens (most of them, say I), and which ones aren't (almost all of them, says Anna).

When I spotted these, I immediately challenged Anna to deny that they were ravens - they're huge!   

To my surprise, Anna agreed...at which point I suddenly realised I was missing a golden opportunity for a shot of them.

I knew that the camera already had the zoom lens on, so I ran downstairs, grabbed it, and rushed back up, removing the lens cap and turning it on as I bound up the stairs...

I felt the pressure of the possibility for missing the chance, as I hurriedly opened the window, and started to try to find a solid, stable position.   Settling in, I looked through the viewfinder at the blur, and started trying to find and focus on the ravens. 

Once located, I zoomed right in and refocussed...brilliant, I'm going to get them!   

I clicked the shutter release...nothing!  Huh?! 

I clicked again...still nothing, argh! 

Did I forget to switch it on?  No, because it just focussed!

Hang on...what's that flashing symbol in the viewfinder?   Squinting, I peered into the tiny screen...

Oh, bollocks, no memory card!!

By this time, Anna was at the end of the bed with a storage crate pulled out from underneath, completely blocking my path...on the bed, May-Z was lurking about looking for some fuss...

Sorry Mayz, I'm coming through! 

I leapt over the bed and ran downstairs again to retrieve the missing card from my PC...I felt sure that I would miss my chance now, but as I leapt over the bed again, past a bemused and somewhat startled looking May-Z, they were still there. 

I rattled off a couple of shots, before one of them dropped down away from the tree:

spotted something

I lucked into this nice profile of the first one to leave.  There's a pleasing amount of detail, given that they were 100m or so away from me as I leaned out of the bedroom window.

incoming

I hoped to get a shot of the second one leaving the tree, but I mis-focussed on the sky at just exactly the wrong moment, and as I was trying to get back to focus and find the remaining raven, he too dropped out of the tree and flew out of sight into the far fields.

Oh well, I did get a nice profile shot of him just beforehand:

lethal weapon

Look at that beak!  He is a big, impressive bird, probably my favourite of all the corvids, although I do have a soft spot for crows too.

So I've learned some lessons about being prepared, and acting quickly once the opportunity arises.

And I got some nice shots - they're not going to change the world, but they were going to be the most difficult corvid to capture, except maybe the jay.  We see the jay much less frequently, but when we do he tends to be much closer - in the garden somewhere. 

So we'll see...

For now, I'm just really pleased to have had the chance to get my local raven buddies into my blog!

B-)

Day 53 - Self Fulfilled Prophecy

no ravens

Curious mix of failure and success with today's photo...

The weather today has been wild, windy and wet, and possibly some other things beginning with "w".   I arrived home early after an off-site meeting, aware that I had no photo and no idea how to solve that particular problem for the 53rd time in 53 days...

As I got to our back door, I noticed that the light was really lovely - colours were vibrant, with a hint of golden glow in the air.   We get this light here now and then, on summer evenings, or grey days like today where a low sun breaks through to illuminate the gloom...it's really beautiful.  

I wondered, somewhat hopelessly, whether I would be able to capture the light on a photo, so hurriedly took 3 photos, with no confidence that I'd end up using them.

My gut was right, and I didn't manage to catch the diffuse, warm feeling - although the grass has a hint of the vibrancy that stood out so at the time...but I liked the framing of this image, and the trees opposite are gorgeous.   

I hope to get better pictures of them later in the year - they often look spectacular in the evening sunset.  

Also, they're favourite haunts of all of our local corvids (raven, crow, rook, jackdaw and magpie), and I get a good silhouette of the trees and birds, from the vantage point of my chair in the lounge.

Especially the ravens, of course...they're so obviously huge when we see them all the time. 

(you gnaw nuthin', Anna Swift...) ;-)

This shot is standing at our back door looking away from the house.   But of course we have different viewpoints to the same trees - the lounge, the top of the stairs, two of the bedrooms...I feel immensely fortunate to have such a beautiful view in my vision several times a day, in its diverse range of seasonal flavours.

However, in my doubt, I forgot to enable HDR mode on my camera, so the sky is too bright with no real detail...there's a lesson there - don't prejudge your work...wait until you've actually made a mess of it before declaring it a mess!  

No, but seriously, it might not be a mess - don't prejudge and then self-fulfil that little prophecy.

Whilst I'm a little disappointed that I didn't take this photo more seriously at the time, and so didn't set the camera up correctly, I'm pleased that I got a picture that has some merit, if only to me.

Most importantly, I've learned from it, which is a key element of most worthwhile endeavours...

One step forward, and all that...

Day 29 - C(r)ow?!

not a crow...

It's a typical January day out there today.  Grey, overcast, damp, and icy teeth on the wind. 

Mid afternoon, we dressed up warm and headed out for a stroll around the field.   I guess this may sound dull, but it really isn't.

For one thing, quite apart from the usual wildlife-spotting, I'm now constantly on the lookout for good photo opportunities.   The light was very poor today, so I abandoned thoughts of taking a "good" photo, and instead prioritised simply finding an interesting subject.

The usual array of Corvids were out and about, as was the usual good natured banter they provoke. 

We have pretty much all of them around us; Crow, Rook, Jackdaw, Magpie, Raven, and the occasional Jay.

As the main four look so similar, being big black birds, telling which is which can be tricky.  

One way of distinguishing is their call.   They vary from a deep rasp to a chirpy voice, on a sort of spectrum.   I think of it this way;

Raven - nothing but deep, slow rasp, no voice
Crow - medium pitch rasp, with a hint of voice
Rook - medium voice, with a hint of rasp
Jackdaw - all voice, no rasp

Another way to tell which is which is how many of them you can see.

Raven - one or two
Crow - two to five
Jackdaw - five to twelve
Rook - dozens to hundreds

Today, a flock of about 50 or so corvids flew past, sounding like crows - most confusing!   Then we realised they were mainly rooks, with a crow or two amongst them. 

We also saw a large single bird, that took off as we entered the field, then settled a bit further away. 

Now, for a bit of context, ravens are quite rare around here.   They're really big, with a very deep voice, and very cool.   We tend to hear them in the mornings, but we're never sure when we see them. 

Well, I think we see them all the time...Anna thinks we never see them.   

I think all large black birds are ravens...Anna thinks none of them are. 

Consequently, we have this endless debate about whether any given example is a raven or not.   

I'm always, like "Woah, dude, take a look at that thing, it's huge!!", and Anna's all, like, "Yeah but nah, brah', that ain't so big!"

So anyway...the one we saw today?  Raven, definitely!!  ;-)

Sadly the raven(!) was too far away for a photo...

But then we met this old lady lurking in the next field, and went over to have a few words.   She said she didn't mind having her photo taken, although she wasn't keen on the dog nosing around.    She said she was cold and bored, so much so that even we puny humans seemed vaguely interesting. 

I took a few snaps and then we wandered off in case she started to find us intimidating, all standing looking at her with our big, front-facing eyes...

Then we spotted someone walking down the lane that runs adjacent to the field, with a jack russell terrier.  

Jazz must've spotted the dog, as he suddenly looked very interested. 

After all that I said yesterday, he suddenly seemed young and bright and sprightly for a second!   I encouraged him to go and see and for a moment he was like his old self...head up, ears cocked high and wide, super alert, and he even started to run with a canter for a few steps!  

It was lovely to see.   It seems that he can still get a little excited about other dogs.   Maybe he's missing his brother...maybe we need to think about whether he needs more canine company...

Maybe he's depressed...hmm I need to go ponder that...

So anyway, a stroll around the field, not so dull, is it?  

Is it?!  It's just me, isn't it...?   Well, me and Anna...

I blame Anna...yeah, that sounds about right...she's turning me into a countryside geek like her and all her mates...

Sigh