High in the darkening sky, a flock of enormous ravens swoop and swirl - narrow black wings stretched wide, heads protruding forward and huge hairy beaks scything through the air.
Every few minutes they let out deep, throaty, honking calls as they soar effortlessly, circling around until, finally, they spot their prey and swoop.
But forget dormice, voles or even small furry rabbits; these sinister looking birds are feasting on something far larger - newborn lambs.
Throughout Britain, traumatised farmers have reported a sudden and disturbing rise in the number of livestock being attacked by ravens.
Davy Thomson, vice-chairman of the Scottish Gamekeepers Association, says it is not breeding birds that cause the problem, but immature birds, scavenging in large packs.
"I've seen several hundred birds roosting together, and all they do is hunt one side of the hill and then move onto their next food source.
They're an impressive foe - up to 2ft long and adaptable: they can survive in Arctic, temperate and desert climates.
Research published last year in the Scientific American also showed the raven to be one of the most intelligent species on the planet - up there with dolphins and apes and, unlike most other birds and animals, capable of learning from their own actions and from observing others' behaviour.
They're thought to be one of the few birds that can count, and some have even learned to fashion leaves into special tools for extracting grubs from crevices in trees.
In Japan, they were reportedly found dropping nuts onto a roadway, then darting down to eat them once the cars had cracked them open.
Although older ravens (they live up to 25 years) mate for life and travel in pairs, young birds may form flocks of up to several hundred - collective nouns for ravens include an "unkindness", a "conspiracy", and a "murder".
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