Given that today is the ancient Irish Tradition of Halloween (Oiche Shamhna), I have decided to share some photos of my black corvid carrion friend "Robbie" who lives back at Castle Point in west Clare. When I was growing up (100 years ago), these beautiful birds were highly persecuted and poisoned to stop them eating lambs etc.. Nowadays such practices have thankfully been banned and are completely illegal. At Halloween Raven images pop up regularly on film posters and posters depicting the Halloween season. The Celts strongly associated the Raven with war on the battlefield and death. But nowadays they can live a fairly sedentary life, away from the close proximity of humans and get on with being masters of their own territories.
Robbie here is the main reason why I managed to find a Lesser Kestrel in west Clare last year, 130 years after the first Irish record. It was he I first noticed at the end of the car park near Castle Point, Kilkee. I drove down to photograph him but found the LK instead. Now I have my lunch in that car park, whenever I am working back around the west Clare area. As you can see he has copped on to me throwing out my bread crust after my lunch and is taking full advantage of it. Such a fantastic and intelligent bird. Long Live the Raven.
