Sunday April 29th

This morning: a cormorant, some mallard, a couple of buzzards and a view of four of the raven chicks, one of them venturing out onto a rock ledge some feet from the nest. Meanwhile one of the parents was circling high above the cliff, no doubt keeping an eye open for other birds of prey. I'm told that there are five raven chicks, but could only see four through the binoculars. A report in today's Observer says that raven are very intelligent, up with apes and dolphins. Finally, everyone was brought to their feet by a really high speed swoop into the gorge by one of the peregrines. I think it was probably the male showing off. Meanwhile, log in to the amazing CONE project in California and shoot yourself some finches! See: http://cone.berkeley.edu/camera