Mark Evans wrote the following for Recorders Newsletter 40 (2020). It is a summary of his experience of monitoring monthly a raven roost high on the afforested mountain top that divides the Cynon and Taff Valleys. In 2019 the highest number of birds recorded was 295 in August (with a 2019 monthly average of 147 birds) with the all-time monthly record count an amazing 577 birds in July 2016. It is therefore a story of a huge raven roost, in a forestry, on a mountain, subject to a long uphill trudge at hideously early hours in all weathers.

‘The Raven count I made at the beginning of December 2019, marks a significant personal milestone, as it was the 250th solo count of the Ravens, since I first discovered the presence of the roost, in 2000. Having then been excluded from it for most of 2001, I began monitoring it in earnest in 2002. To mark the occasion, here are some rambling reminiscences, related to the counts, but not really about the Ravens themselves.

I described them as solo counts, for on four occasions I was accompanied by my friend and avid monitor of breeding and passage birds at Rhaslas Pond, Mike Hogan. It was with the help of Mike that I confirmed my suspicion that at times, a significant number (up to 20%) of the roost’s population were leaving the roost to the east, completely unseen and uncounted by me. On one occasion, when I was away, Mike also completed a solo count for me and although this count and the ones made jointly with him are included in the ever-growing set of data for the roost, it is the personal tally of solo counts that I am marking here. Thank you, Mike, for your invaluable help and good company on those counts we did together. I’ll always be grateful: such a pity you never saw the hoped-for woodcocks.

As with many projects or undertakings such as this, it didn't start out as one. When I first noticed a large group of Ravens suddenly fly out of a plantation, one morning, I was instantly curious, so returned in the evening to see if there was a roost there. I watched the birds return, but their playful aerobatics and general toing and froing, while entertaining, made counting them impossible, so a few days later, I made my first dawn visit and found that a very important number were using the roost. I decided to count them every fortnight for a year, to see if there was a pattern to the roost's population. Foot and Mouth outbreak closed the forestry for over half a year, so I had to delay the start of the monitoring year. In 2002, I counted them each fortnight, as planned and when the year ended, I found myself wondering whether there would be an appreciable difference in the population in 2003, so I just carried on with the fortnightly counts right through 2003 and 2004. I had become addicted by this point; not just to the need to see what the Raven population would do next, but by the whole slightly surreal and definitely magical experience of being out in the pre-dawn darkness and the dawn itself.

Over the years, I have had to move my counting spot in response to the evolving nature of the roost; changes which altered the flight paths from the roost. Due to the often very poor light when they first begin flying out, I have to find a counting spot, from where I can see all of them against a background of sky, for in that early pre-dawn twilight, they are invisible against a background of the land.

Until fairly recently, the counting spots have been close to the roost, which really connected me to the birds. It was a magical experience, sitting in the darkness, watching the first glimmerings of twilight begin to appear in the sky and then hear the first calls from the senior pair in the roost. Ravens have individual and often recognisable voices, so it was obvious that it was the same pair each time, which would begin the calling and then be joined after a minute or two, by the rest of the roost in a chorus, which typically lasted ten minutes and at the end of which, the first groups would fly out. The senior pair would continue calling throughout the time it took for the roost to empty (typically one hour) and then would be the last to leave. Sometimes they remained in the roost, with no intention of leaving.

How long will I be able to continue counting the Ravens? Well, things are changing and I can foresee and end to the roost. The first potential reason for the end to my counting will come fairly soon, when the NRW Forestry fell the plantation, it is currently in. That won’t be the end to the roost, which will almost certainly move to another plantation nearby. Whether I will be able to count them leaving the new roost site remains to be seen. The other reason and the one that may cause the roost to eventually decline (it is already declining) and fizzle out is that the roost is where it is because of the nearby refuse tip and almost no food waste is now finding its way onto that tip. As RCT encourages more food waste recycling and the domestic refuse is no longer taken to the tip, the core, non-breeding population of the roost will find it far less attractive and the roost may eventually disperse. Whatever happens, I am not getting any younger, so it is extremely unlikely that I will ever reach my 500th count’.