Two years ago, after 44 years of living at the same address, my parents had a species of bird nest in the garden for the very first time. And they didn't arrive quietly - oh no!
Here they are:
Black, crow-like birds but with a steep forehead, pale bill and vaguely comical air, they are of course Rooks.
When I was a kid, in the same house in rural Worcestershire, Rooks never came into the garden (I know because I kept logbooks). They did stop sometimesin the 40-foot high Ash trees at the foot of the garden, but the rookeries where they bred were down in the spinneys and woods in the countryside, not up in the village.
Over the last decade, the Rooks have become increasingly brave, and now venture into my parents' garden to take food from on and under the birdtable.
It culminated in first the one pair, and then last year two pairs nesting in the Ash. And then this Christmas, when I visited, there were at least six pairs staking out potential nestsites.
What a performance! A whole load of tail fanning, neck stretching, deep bowing, such as below.
But of course the big thing is the noise - an enthusiastic, energetic, throaty cawing, all through the day. This is all courtship stuff, which for Rooks is very much a social thing.
The noise, which for me has all the evocations of childhood in the countryside, is now the accompaniment to gardening for my parents. It looks very likely that Rooks will be on their Big Garden Birdwatch list in a couple of weeks (28 & 29 Jan - get it in your diaries!).
Have you seen any changes in the birds coming into your garden over the years? We'd love to hear.
I have three of these , they are huge and they scare the small birds , we have affectionally christened them , the witches of eastwick.
I live in the country, we used to have starlings nesting in the eaves of our house. but we have not seen one in the garden for the last two years but the population of sparrows has increased , we get twenty to thirty at a time round the feeders.regards to all. Macsi.