Ravens in Dorset

Lakey

Well-Known Member
Evening all,

Like a lot of people I have noticed an increase is sightings of Ravens in Dorset in the last five years or so. It is now common to see a pair or two of Ravens whilst out deer stalking on most days however tonight was something else................

This evening I was up a highseat, on the edge of a wood, on the downland to the north of Dorchester, midway between Dorchester and Sherborne. After being in the seat for about twenty minutes I heard a raven calling a little behind me (over the wood to my rear), couldnt see it, but heard it clearly (as is often the case). It passed, and all went quiet. About five minutes later I heard another raven calling off to my right and when I looked in that direction I couldnt believe my eyes, I counted 18 ravens in one sighting all at once. I watched as they gently flew towards me slightly over the wood, in two;s and threes, with more coming into view behind them every few minutes. Well pretty much the whole time I was in the highseat I had ravens passing overhead from right to left along the face of the wood. In the end I counted over 40 Ravens passing me and heading off over a far wood. They were definitely not all the same birds circling as I watched then disappear out of sight to my left as more birds came into view from my right.
Well, to say I was gobbsmacked is an understatement, as I had no idea they were so numerous. I can only presume they were congregating and making their way to a nearby roost.
To put this into context, I have seen more ravens tonight than I have in total in the last ten years!!

I reckon in Dorset at least, they are here to stay;)

Anybody else got any Raven experience in Dorset, or their local surroundings ??
 
See them all the time around the poole basin. We have also got a fair few in N. E. Somerset.
 
I work in Taunton and every year, normally around this time, a pair of Ravens seem to take up residence on the site I work at between the M5 and town centre. They usually disappear during the day but return in the evening until morning.
I live about ten miles away from Taunton and regularly see Ravens during the year at home.
 
Had a pair nest on a big pylon in Walsall last year. The place we stalk in Worcestershire has an increasing number of Ravens over the lambing fields which are increasingly not well received.
 
hi lakey, hope your keeping well mate. we are seeing them alot more in north staffs now, most days i see one or two.
 
Thanks for the replies.

Ravens are definitely on the increase as I see ones and two's on most occasions that I go stalking, however I have NEVER seen 40+ in one session before. That for me was quite exceptional. Before that I didnt think there were 40 birds in the whole of Dorset!!

Lakey
 
Seen them everywhere throughout England even in the Fens.
Methinks that like other predominantly moorland birds of yesteryear eg Buzzards they may have had helping hands.
I always found it very hard not to pull the trigger when watching them pull a newborn blackie lamb around by it's tongue or ripped navel, and I know a lot of folk who did.
 
a keeper friend here in wiltshire shot a fox in the lamp but couldnt find it so left it to collect until the morning when he arrivied he pushed over 20 ravens off of it i can see them being much more of a problem than crows in years to come
 
I have a mate who shoots foxes on a farm local to him. A couple of years ago the farm lost more lambs to the ravens than the foxes. Lost 2 to foxes and double figures to the ravens. It was nothing to see 70 ravens floating about. Lovely bird but a real problem if they get a taste for lamb, even with a license to shoot them.
 
Called by the farmer between Dorchester and Yeovil in Lambing season to dispatch a heavily pregnant ewe who had her intestines pecked out of a 1” hole in her side, still alive and walking around half red with blood and a 5 foot trail of guts behind her. Caused by a raven. Another between Weymouth and Dorchester had an eyeball pecked out.
 
A neighbour has c400 ewes, and I see Ravens heading in that direction most days, from Portland, I suspect.
 
Derbyshire/ Staffordshire border.We see ravens in groups of 20 or more every day we go a walk.They have become a big problem in the last 10 years.
 
seems to be the current way to go,, someone claims numbers of [insert species here] are dangerously low,,, campaigns to get them protection, and then they increase to the point of being a direct detrimental affect on many more species, sometimes affecting their own demise. and the whole process repeats.
 
I have seen Ravens in a lot of England, south, Dorset, Hamps, Berks, Bucks, east Anglia and Lincolnshire and west Lancs.
But up here you sometimes see hundreds of Corbies going to roost and flocks of 40-50 in the fields harassing anything they can.
 
I have seen Ravens in a lot of England, south, Dorset, Hamps, Berks, Bucks, east Anglia and Lincolnshire and west Lancs.
But up here you sometimes see hundreds of Corbies going to roost and flocks of 40-50 in the fields harassing anything they can.

Yes they are worse up there and when we lived North of the Border my Ex called Ravens "Big Corbies" and quite often came in after a walk with the 222 with a big smile on her face.
 
Back
Top