Murder

[UncleEbenezer]

Saw a murder today. Down by the estuary, quietly watching the tide coming in.

Corvids aren't the most usual bird life down there, though neither are they rare. In the past I've mostly seen them in the lagoon, some distance from where I sit. Today they were right up close. One large raven in particular sat on the mud just a couple of metres from me for quite a while grubbing for food, but was disappointed by the rat I'd seen earlier failing to emerge from its bolt-hole. It flew off only when the incoming tide started to threaten wet feet.

Anyway, it put me in mind of Kiloran's thread. Another potential ally?

[AleisterCrowley]

I love corvids apart from magpies - irrational, perhaps ?
Plenty of big crows down by the river today. I love the way they hop about, and occasionally flap lazily across the fields close to the ground.
See the occasional jay too, although they are more timid.

[LadyGagarin]

I love magpies, perhaps because no-one else seems to - they are the underdogs of the avian world, if you like. It's also, apparently, a myth that they will steal your keys.

[bungeejumper]

We've had ravens nesting around these parts for the last few years - they get quite a lot of mobbing from the rooks, which is a bit surprising since they're so much bigger. But we're always pleased to see them - although some people still don't like them hanging around the churchyard. Too much Edgar Allan Poe, if you ask me.

Their call is quite distinctive - not so much a caw as a sort of low grunt. Rather as if you'd just been buzzed by a low-flying pig.

BJ

[tjh290633]

I found a young magpie on the footpath into the village this morning. It couldn't stand, so my guess is that it fell from a high nest and broke a leg in the fall. I also met a dog walker who was quite distressed because her dog had gone for it. I don't think the dog had caused the injury. It had gone on my return walk, possibly into the undergrowth.

TJH

[AleisterCrowley]

I love magpies, perhaps because no-one else seems to - they are the underdogs of the avian world, if you like. It's also, apparently, a myth that they will steal your keys.

Beautiful plumage, but a rather harsh aggressive call CHAK CHAK CHAK!
I like crow and rook calls - a misty field with a tree full of rooks caw-ing ...

[UncleEbenezer]

I like crow and rook calls - a misty field with a tree full of rooks caw-ing ...

That's quite seasonal, isn't it? I certainly don't associate it with June's warmth and light. But I know what you mean: it's rather evocative.

Yesterday's murder was entirely quiet. I was disappointed.

[AleisterCrowley]

Yes, I tend to associate large rook colonies with Autumn (mists, mellow fruitfulness etc...)

[bungeejumper]

I like crow and rook calls - a misty field with a tree full of rooks caw-ing ...

That's quite seasonal, isn't it? I certainly don't associate it with June's warmth and light.

Our local rooks can kick up quite a racket in the spring as well. Especially when dusk is approaching and they're all wheeling around in what seems to be a loudest-voice competition. While doing more and more pointless pirouettes in the sky.

I suspect that these birds are the males having a bit of a laddish rumpus down the pub before bedtime. Why do I say that? Because suddenly they'll all push off back to the far distant tree where their wimminfolk are taking care of the nest, that's why. And suddenly it all goes totally quiet - and that's rather nice as well.

BJ

[Slarti]

We've been getting a Jay as a visitor in our garden for a week or 3.

It has a very distinctive face, being a dirty grey with black stripes, but only 2 or 3 stripes instead of the usual profusion.

And the ones round here normally seem to have brown faces with stripes.

Slarti

[tjh290633]

Two adult and three juvenile magpies in the field this morning. I wonder if they are the family which lost the nestling that fell out of the nest.

From the look of them, this three were newly fledged.

Also another group of swifts passing over on migration north. I always see them in the same location, which must be on their migration route.

TJH