Raven till dawn

A new year a new start: having had little time to cover the local patch in the last quarter of 2011, I make the effort to give the area a decent work-over this morning. A total of 37 species is typical for a quiet mid-winter morning, the only points of interest being a very early drumming Great Spotted Woodpecker and a fly-over Lesser Redpoll. The latter species took me nearly 12 months to record in Cuddesdon in 2011, but less than an hour in 2012. Rather depressingly 37 species is about 40% of all the species that are likely to be recorded in the Cuddesdon area in whole year. 40% in under 90 minutes!

I force myself not to dwell on these figures for too long and as I return to the village a distant "cronk" call tells me that I have just added Raven to the 2012 year list - the fifth ever record, but the third in four months. Ravens are getting more common out here. Particularly today, as this is a flock of 5 Ravens heading east, the biggest flock I've seen in the county.