I managed to squeeze in a couple of hours at Fen Drayton last friday evening (24/9/10). The wind was bitter but it was a nice evening, cracking sunset. Anyway, the starlings were gathering to roost in good form, i'd say at least a couple of thousand gathered and dived into the reedbed.
Whilst watching the starlings i cast my eyes to the corvid flocks gathering to roost to the right of the main car park and noticed a pale bird with dark wing tips flying amongst them causing a bit of a commotion. My mind was jumping to all sorts of conclusions but i managed to get a fix on it and i was pretty sure that i was watching a leucistic jackdaw with only a few black feathers remaining on the wings. Light was fading and it was way off in the distance but i'm pretty sure thats what i was looking at, anyone else noticed this? Could cause some confusion!
Warden Intern at Otmoor.
I went to watch the roost last night, but didn't see the jackdaw. Other people have noticed it too in recent days. Like you, I had a great sunset showing behind the gathering birds, but the starlings were diving straight into the reeds as each flock arrived, rather than form the huge shape-shifting spectacle that they usually provide. The weather conditions look similar for another visit tonight..
..cloud cover increased, preventing a colourful sunset, but the rooks and jackdaws still came in their hundreds. Finding the odd-one-out is like looking for a needle in a haystack, and it eluded me again