Welsh Country March-April 2017
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THE RAVEN<br />
I scan across the beach, taking in<br />
those few landlocked tourists determined<br />
to feel sand beneath them; the donkeys lined up,<br />
looking resignedly bored as they wait for potential<br />
riders to come by. More interesting, though, is<br />
the behaviour of the gulls, black-backed in this<br />
case, as they wander about uneasily. Living on<br />
the coast, I’m used to seeing them, their bulk, the<br />
carved smoothness of their sleek white heads.<br />
But I’m not used to seeing them unsettled in<br />
this way. Whenever I usually see them standing<br />
on a car bonnet, a town-centre wall or the rocks<br />
of the breakwater, they always seem supremely<br />
confident, as though they could bully anything out<br />
of their way.<br />
He is beautiful, his ebony sheen<br />
balanced in total opposition to the<br />
stark whiteness of the other birds<br />
around him. He also completely<br />
relaxed both in our company and<br />
under the scrutiny of the gulls.<br />
It can’t be our presence that’s making them<br />
skittish, I decide. They’d be well-used to people,<br />
lurking around places such as this on the offchance<br />
of a stray chip falling to the floor or a<br />
half-eaten packet of crisps blowing from a table,<br />
so what is it? I stand up and look off to the side<br />
of the seated area and there, standing completely<br />
at ease, is a large raven. He is beautiful, his ebony<br />
sheen balanced in total opposition to the stark<br />
whiteness of the other birds around him. He also<br />
completely relaxed both in our company and<br />
under the scrutiny of the gulls. Easily a match for<br />
them size-wise, it<br />
seems to know that it<br />
is in control here; with its aerial<br />
prowess it could outfly them, with their<br />
heavy, laden flight, in a heartbeat.<br />
I don’t usually see many ravens right on the<br />
coast, but this one seems very much at home<br />
here, lured perhaps by the same easy pickings as<br />
the gulls. Perhaps it’s even here due to the gulls<br />
themselves, not being averse to the odd egg or<br />
nestling, and the gulls’ breeding season has begun<br />
in earnest, explaining their unease at the raven’s<br />
presence.<br />
It barely moves, aside from the occasional<br />
twitch of the head to readjust its field of vision,<br />
causing the breeze to riffle through its oily-black<br />
neck feathers, making them ripple like the surface<br />
of a deeply shadowed mountain tarn. Immovable,<br />
it glances over at the gulls again.<br />
“Your move”, it seems to say. U<br />
Words: Simon Smith<br />
Illustration: Ditta Foldesi-Szalkai<br />
www.welshcountry.co.uk 21