I’m wondering if anyone could shed some light on why magpies or crows are dropping rocks from our roof please? It’s happened everyday for a week now and at the same time each morning! I’m not sure if the rocks are dropped by accident, but we hear them tumbling from the roof and find them lying by the back door and also now around the front on the decking. I would love to know why they do this ! Many thanks in advance.
Pete
Birding is for everyone no matter how good or bad we are at it,enjoy it while you can
I'm guessing when you say rocks, you mean large stones.
I've seen juvenile gulls doing similar, and can only guess that was an adolescent action, as they seemed to be competing against each other. The links below show a sequence of three photos of one juvenile gull dropping a stone, picking it up and dropping it again..
It had been suggested the gulls were practicing their shellfish cracking skills, I never did get a final answer, which may be what Pete was thinking about.
It could be the magpies are being (adolescent) mischievous, or they could be using stones to perfect breaking open shells....
Mike
Flickr: Peak Rambler