I had a message from Dave Land today, a friend of mine and a well respected local birder and photographer.  He reminded me that Ravens will have paired up by now and are nesting, being one of the UK's earliest breeding birds and this bird will probably be a single unpaired bird. But I am not sure of that though.  Even though there doesn't appear to be a suitable nesting area nearby it seems to me that I see two different birds. I haven't seen two together but that wouldn't be surprising if they were incubating eggs you would expect them to swap over at the nest and then for the 'resting" bird to come and feed on it's own. Interesting to say the least.  Ravens have made a big come back in this part of the country and surely it won't be too long before they are the next bird in line for a threatened cull.  Judging by there liking for eggs they must be doing real damage to breeding birds.  I can imagine that if Ravens were in disproportionate numbers at lets say, a seabird colony, then they would quickly make short work of any nests, making short work of all eggs in just a short time. Still, as yet I haven't heard that this is happeneing.

Back to the birds today.  There was a Raven with me within seconds of my arrival and in total it, (or they) made off  with a total of 11 eggs.  As well as that, it went to the chicken feed and "snacked" from the hoppers and also had a drink.  This is what made me think it may have been an incubating bird taking a break and needing a drink.  Surely if it had just eaten a moist wet egg it wouldn't be in need of a drink.