Odds & Sods 2021

Why no pics Dave!!!!!! Would especially love to see the perching on the minute hand and then flying off with beau hand to hand:-) Haven't seen the rooks again, must just have been a quick stopover on their way to the next village where they nest in the trees just outside an ironmongers shop and have done for years.
Linda 40 Magpies, wow I have never seen that many together, can just imagine the fracas.

I don't think I've ever seen so many crows together like that in my life, a fabulous photo Gaynor and many thanks for sharing.

You won't get that number of crows together Mike, they are pretty solitary I believe, these have to be rooks, the white beak corvids, they did return the other day but only eight of them.

I thought they were Crows. too! Oh well, my ID skills are not the best. But I have seen some posts in the past, I think at some time not in summer, with gatherings of large numbers of Crows. I think Linda posted photos of a large grouping--she had them around in the trees in or near her garden for a day or two, if I remember rightly. Someone else also mentioned having seen a large group at one time...

I did indeed Ann , well remembered!

community.rspb.org.uk/.../why-so-many-crows

Oh thanks, Linda!

Book out!!!!! OK can be both right - Crows are mostly solitary but then can gather in scores on beaches or fields!! Rooks pair up with Jackdaws, feeding flying and roosting together. Good to learn as I always say.

gaynorsl said:

You won't get that number of crows together Mike, they are pretty solitary I believe, these have to be rooks, the white beak corvids, they did return the other day but only eight of them.

You're right, and I know that, so why I said crows, I've no idea!

Perhaps retirement is getting the better of me!  

gaynorsl said:

Mike - no I'm not right - never am!!!! see above Dave's post where he sees 90 or so grouping together, apparently pre-roosting before flying off to do the lonesome thing!!! So apart from the beak and top of head unless you get a close up you can't rely on numbers.

Nature is very diverse and will often diversify to suit its current surroundings, the art of survival, which can sometimes add chaos to the rule book.