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Meet The Corvids: Crows, Rooks, Jackdaws & Others (Misc.)

hunck said:
Dunno about this - crows certainly roost together in numbers & you often see them feeding together in a field. A murder of crows..
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Yes. It's a total myth that crows are solitary - that's one bit of rural lore that is so off I doubt it was created by anyone who'd ever seen a crow...or been in the countryside.

To be fair though, crows are often solitary nesters, whereas rooks create communes; the phrase could maybe be applied to their nesting habits.

There's been a similar discussion on the rather opaquely named The Most Unbelievable and Sinister Thing I've Ever Seen thread.

Edit - after Dave Plankton's post: For clarity the first sentence should really be 'myth that crows are exclusively solitary.'
 
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Yes, I could have probably made that clearer. I wasn't trying to suggest that they were habitually communal - because they are certainly not - just that the exclusivity suggested by the old country saying is utter nonsense. And - with all due respect to the RSPB (I'm a member) - the use of 'occasional' is possibly a bit misleading; flocking is not at all rare behaviour, at least in winter months.
 
David Plankton said:
Didn't you once post a photo you'd taken of crows or rooks in a tree? Out walking somewhere I think.
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On the other thread I linked to I posted an image of a huuuuge flock over Hayfield in the Peak District, on a winter's morning when I was working for my brother. Unfortunately it was on a now defunct hosting sight, the image is very degraded and I'm not sure that I still have the original, which was taken with a phone.

I am slightly obsessed with crows and do however have dozens and dozens of images like these. Taken for another proposed art project that will probably never happen:

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Spookdaddy said:
On the other thread I linked to I posted an image of a huuuuge flock over Hayfield in the Peak District, on a winter's morning when I was working for my brother. Unfortunately it was on a now defunct hosting sight, the image is very degraded and I'm not sure that I still have the original, which was taken with a phone.

I am slightly obsessed with crows and do however have dozens and dozens of images like these. Taken for another proposed art project that will probably never happen:

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There's a couple of fields near here - one often has a flock of sea-gulls on it (we're about 30 miles from the sea but right by the river) and another, at some point most days, a flock of crows.
 
David Plankton said:
Going off-topic, but why do I only ever see pied wagtails on tarmac? Carparks and garage forecourts seem to be their preferred habitat in the 20thC, I wonder where they were hanging out a thousand years ago. They must be adapted for rocky ground so the ever increasing urban sprawl seems to be to their advantage.
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I see them on the beach a great deal where they are very well camouflaged on the stoney parts.
 
Min Bannister said:
I see them on the beach a great deal where they are very well camouflaged on the stoney parts.
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Pied wagtails have readily adapted to urban environments, but they also really like water. In the countryside around where I live, when I'm walking by a river the first birds I'm likely to see will be dippers and pied wagtails. They are beautiful birds, like their cousins the yellow wagtail.
 
On Jackdaws. It is quite amazing the places they can nest. I once saw one landing next to a chimney pot in which there was a tiny sliver of space between the bricks and the flat slab on top. It started to look a bit shifty so I kept looking. I watched, impressed as it made itself almost completely flat and posted itself into the space like a letter. :omg: I suppose they have those light, flexible skeletons for flying but still..
 
I was sitting in the front bedroom yesterday reading a book on Haunted Britain when there was the most terrific thump on the roof above me, followed by scrabbling noises. I jumped to my feet and peered out of the front window, wondering what the hell was going on, and did spot at least one corvid flying right towards the house on an upwards trajectory. I wonder whether a few of them were having a bit of a barney up there, noisy lumps.
 
Also, I occasionally see wagtails in my garden. I always call them trotty wagtails because that's how my mother referred to them, so thank you for pointing out that this is not their actual name!
 
After my bird feeder got trashed a couple of times I set up a cctv to catch the culprit..
 

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When West Nile Virus first appeared in the US (1999), there was alarm over the number of crows and jays that were dying from it. People were reporting dead crows all over the place (although I think it's since been established that many other bird species are susceptible as well).

Nowadays, though, there doesn't seem to be any mention of bird deaths even though West Nile is still with us. Was the initial die-off a culling of susceptible individuals, and have the corvids now developed herd immunity to the virus?
 
On the phone to my ”Guvnor” the other morning he stopped mid-sentence to tell me he had just watched a Crow swoop on a young songbird, kill it, and start eating it before it was dive bombed by a large number of other song birds who chased it off. The shooting community shoot Corvids to keep the numbers down to preserve the song bird population but historically I never have as I only shoot what is put down for hunting and is edible. I may be tempted in light of this comment from the boss. Though I must admit I first saw a guy shoot a jay out of the sky a few years ago and was quite saddened as they really are a most beautiful bird.
 
Tempest63 said:
The shooting community shoot Corvids to keep the numbers down to preserve the song bird population
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Think you might find it was to protect gamebird chicks, not songbirds. Might use songbirds as an excuse now, but at one time anything with sharp teeth,claws or a powerful beak got shot out as a matter of course. I only used to shoot for the pot, just my choise.
 
Bullseye said:
Think you might find it was to protect gamebird chicks, not songbirds. Might use songbirds as an excuse now, but at one time anything with sharp teeth,claws or a powerful beak got shot out as a matter of course. I only used to shoot for the pot, just my choise.
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Ditto here. I’ve never even aimed at a Woodcock. And if I did I’m sure their flying skills would significantly outweigh my shooting ability.
 
A few years ago I was dropped into the role of Airfield Manager at an airfield on the Eden estuary in Fife. One never ending problem was with the local population of crows which had learnt that the tasty mussels from the estuary could be very successfully opened by dropping them from height onto the runways and other hard standings. Mussel shells can cause quite a bit of damage to tyres, or even worse if ingested into an aircraft jet engine. Clever buggers, those crows but they made my life a pain.
 
In the next city along there is a reasonably new building, an office complex, where crows or ravens have recently begun flying towards the windows and colliding with them.

They then peck at the windows and make angry-sounding noises. This all happens at least 5 times a day.
Only one bird at a time does it so I'm wondering if it's just that one but people at the complex feel it's lots of them at different times.

The person who told me this said a bird was doing it while he was present. It pecked at the outside window when he was standing inside.
 
escargot said:
In the next city along there is a reasonably new building, an office complex, where crows or ravens have recently begun flying towards the windows and colliding with them.

They then peck at the windows and make angry-sounding noises. This all happens at least 5 times a day.
Only one bird at a time does it so I'm wondering if it's just that one but people at the complex feel it's lots of them at different times.

The person who told me this said a bird was doing it while he was present. It pecked at the outside window when he was standing inside.
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Are they mirror-like windows?
 
CORVIDS RUINED 2020

CAN'T BELIEVE THERE'S A THREAD

I'M FUMMIN
 
Tribble said:
We get wagtails every year - think they nest in the garage roof somewhere. Then we get to see the young 'uns being taught the noble art of catching insects in the street and gardens.

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Whilst sitting on the spine of a dead alien monster. :oops:
 
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