On my Saltfleet WeBS yesterday, I heard what sounded like just a single raven call, which was odd, since I'm used to 3 calls together. having turned, there were 2 ravens flying south about 70 metres from me and 15 metres up. As I watched, they gradually gained height and flew through a party of black-headed gulls that were circling and catching insects. One of the ravens did a roll and they carried on out of sight over Saltfleet Haven. As the winter crow and jackdaw flocks have been increasing each year on the coast, I've been looking through them hoping for a raven one day, but these came most unexpectedly. I often see ravens when I'm in the west of the Stamford area, but these are my first Lincs ravens away from there. From the same spot that I saw the ravens, within minutes, my first autumn snow bunting came along and foraged along the tide wrack. It was a male and then 10 minutes later, my first autumn Lapland bunting, also a male, did the same thing, when a merlin zoomed past and sent all the larks and pipits scattering in all directions. It was an excellent WeBS wader count wise, but also included a couple of pintail and 5 red-breasted mergansers, not the most common of birds on my stretch. During the count and later at home, I had 500+ pink-feet flying south in small groups up to 120. So ravens twice in one day; I was gardening at home in Theddlethorpe at around 1600hrs, when I heard a single raven call. I looked up and there were 2 ravens flying at tree height over the garden out towards the beach. Not bad!
Regards, Cliff
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