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Friday 10 October 2014

October 10th 2014 - Hopeless Jackdaws

 
Ohh I give up. Actually I don't, I just need to put more effort into this. Yesterday over the garden around 400 jackdaws wheeled and circled as they flew into their roost in the village, at around 6pm. I've been watching these birds come to roost all year, watching the few hundred dribble down to couples by mid April, then family pairs in the summer. By mid September the social cohesion which jackdaws enjoy saw these individual family groups noisily combine en route to the roost, then about 7pm. At 7am they noisily fly the other way from roost to their daytime foraging grounds. Sometimes at eye level past the bedroom window which overlooks the fields. Tonight I heard them, having the camera beside me I ventured into the garden. Tonight they drifted towards the sea, halfheartedly wafting about aimlessly en-route to the roost a good half a mile away. Hand held telephoto images are pointless, but it became a record shot of a Wessex Reiver standing in the garden trying and failing to capture a decent image for the record.  
 
Jackdaws (in fact all corvids but especially jackdaws and ravens) have enthralled me for years. Yet it was only a few years back that I began to really understand them after making a radio programme on cognitive behaviour. Jackdaws are almost unique in the animal world in that they have a pale eye, much like we have a pale eye and dark iris. The jackdaw eye is different to ours, yet the pale ring on its eye is now known to play a major part in their social interaction. Jackdaws indeed use their eyes to communicate fear, aggression, friendship and so on. Work is on going but the fascinating aspect of this to me is that these common, gregarious birds we live cheek by jowl with are supremely intelligent.
 
More information on this comes from the Cambridge Cognative Project especially this recent paper
 

That said, for me the joy is every night hearing the jak-a-jack calls coming from the south knowing they're on the move and about to fly over. I'm finding it difficult to photograph them at home so a trip to the roost seems the next logical step.

5 comments:

  1. go to the cafe at Hatfield Forest they perch on the chairs !

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  2. My favorite birds are crows and ravens. They're brilliant. Every time they come to the garden I notice a grin on my face. Absolutely love them. That's fascinating information about the jackdaws. As far as I know we have none here.

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  3. That's a cafe to venture to Pete - that's also why I love jacks, they are fun, sociable and can with a bit of coaxing become friendly. The same thing happens at Avebury in Wiltshire, the jacks roost above the cafe, so the cafe provides lovely tit-bits.

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  4. I'd guessed as much given your moniker of 'Oldcrow’ err, oldcrow. Have you ever managed to make one become tame and come to you?

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  5. Not sure where the nearest roost is to me but a few are now regulars at my peanut feeders. On taking photos of them,I did notice how striking there eyes are - interesting to hear there is a reason for that.

    Now, here's a question for you - this year, Woodpigeons abandoned a nest in our garden with two eggs days from hatching. Both Magpies and Jackdaws were seen feeding in the garden at this time. Which one do you think scared them off? The eggs were gone a week later when I looked.

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