Look out for giant ravens
I SPENT a lovely evening in the company of the Swinton Trefoil Guild, sharing stories of some of the wildlife we have on the local peatlands.
A couple of the ladies had no idea of the wilderness and amazing wildlife we have just a couple of miles from where they meet at All Saints Church in Wardley.
However, having been involved in the wonderful Guiding movement, many will have trekked onto the moss in the past.
Of course, with agriculture and industry on the mosses, they have not been welcoming to people or a lot of wildlife until the Wildlife Trust became involved.
It was my pleasure to tell them of the amazing plants and creatures and wildlife spectacles we have on places like Little Woolden, Astley and Highfield mosses.
And then there is Red Moss, close to the UniBol Stadium in Horwich, where we spotted a fairly rare bird only last week.
A large raven flew above our heads, telling us it was there with its croaky, guttural call, almost a grunt. I had just seen a buzzard but this bird was all black and about the same size or maybe bigger. This was not a carrion crow.
A raven? We see lots of crows, jackdaws and magpies around here, all part of the same family, but the raven is the giant of this group.
While they tend to inhabit coastal areas, in the North West, we have had instances of nesting birds on Wigan Town Hall
and the DW stadium in Wigan. So there’s a nice friendly link between Wigan Athletic and Bolton Wanderers.
We have all heard of the ravens guarding the Tower of London, but seeing these magnificent birds in the wild is much more exciting.
Ravens can be up to two feet long with a wingspan which is nearly five feet. They are actually bigger, in some cases, than a buzzard. They live between 10 and 15 years
on average.
They are all black, and much larger than the other crows. They have a strong, heavy bill and a long, wedge-shaped tail.
Ravens have expanded from the coasts and mountains and the local Bird Atlas is estimating totals of around 400 birds in the North West over winter.
So there is a good chance that you will see them if you look up - but make sure you don’t trip up. They are big so you
won’t miss them if one flies over your garden.
Ravens pair for life and males perform breeding displays of posturing, preening and bill caressing from February onwards.
Females lay four to six blue-green eggs in a nest of twigs and moss.
Life is never boring on the peatlands of the North West and every so often we are treated to something special, like a giant raven croaking overhead.