There is a little snow on the beak of the raven in the picture above. The bird had been perched on the church on the summit of Croagh Patrick which, like the rest of the mountain, and indeed Mayo, was covered in snow in the days before Xmas. I see ravens most days when I am out hiking in Connemara but I normally don’t get a good view of them. On this particular day, the raven was ‘hovering’ close to my position – the ferocious breeze at the summit made it easy for the bird to hold a stationary position in the air. It helped that I was lugging a big lens – something I rarely do when hiking.