An unkind conspiracy against ravens?

THERE are certain bird calls that have an evocative, even a thrilling, effect on most people. I certainly react to the sound of migrating wild geese honking on the wing, to a cuckoo calling in the spring and to the wild music of whooper swans bouncing off the water in deep winter.

Another bird call that stops me in my tracks is the deep croak of a raven. But if this is an evocative sound what does it evoke? For me it brings back memories of days when I’ve hiked high into the mountains and the bird’s call has echoed off a precipice. Or a time when I lived close to the sea and ravens sailed on the up-currents over the cliffs.

Ravens like cliffs and precipices and these are their preferred nesting sites. Now I live in a flat part of the midlands where, apart from the odd quarry, we have no cliffs — but we do have ravens in steadily increasing numbers.