Raven's Return

East Yorkshire has a resident RAVEN. The one I saw in September was in Kelk again last weekend.

Bonus: this time with photo evidence!

Also bonus: it was close enough to hear its croaking calls.

In the previous post I noted: "Earlier in September one went through Tophill Low and High Eske / Leven, and it's possible (most likely?) the same one roaming around. If it is the same I wouldn't bet against it reappearing."

Photos from Tophill & HE/Leven show a damaged right-wing feather which can be seen in the photos below. It *IS* the same bird *AND* it reappeared!

The views last month were distant. Not this time. On Saturday morning I caught sight of it moving east over Little Kelk then it appeared to drop down on to fields out of sight. When I got back to where it came down it had just lifted, did three loops around overhead before heading out of sight north over the wood.

On Sunday, in the afternoon, I encountered it again a mile or so to the south. This time it surprised me by emerging from a tree canopy pretty much as I was directly below. Again it circled about for a bit, made a lot of noise, before heading off purposefully south-east toward Foston.

Wow.

EDIT: the following is a summary of E.Yorks Raven reports published in Yorkshire Bird Reports 2005-2014. All seem to be fly-over reports with none hanging around, although some of the 2008 birds might have been the same individual wanderer.

2005: none
2006: Spurn (Nov)
2007: Flamborough (Jul & Oct), North Cave (Nov)
2008: Nafferton (Feb), 7 records along the coast during the year
2009: Flamborough (2 together, Oct)
2010: North Cave (Apr & 2 together May)
2011: North Cave (Feb)
2012: none
2013: none
2014: none


KROAK! Look at that monster beak!

Profile shot.

And up...

Head/throat and tail shape are distinctive.

A review of the rest of the weekend to follow soon.