It's time I had another go at writing at least occasional notes from our garden feeders. As it happens, there's quite a lot to report just now, so here goes with yesterday's news:
The woods to the back of us contain magpies, jackdaws, carrion crows and a pair of ravens. No jays. sadly - we had them two years ago, but I've not seen or heard one since. Rooks pass overhead now and again, but it's very seldom we see them here. As far as our resident members of the crow family are concerned, though, yesterday was quite fraught. Clearly there are young birds still in the nest - somewhere not too far from us they are being quite vocal. So parents are being protective, and they probably need to be.
So as I was sitting in the garden, a sudden commotion caught my attention, and I looked up to see a carrion crow, a jackdaw and a magpie all involved in aerial combat. Quite a battle was going on. The magpie peeled off and flew back into the wood, toward the sound of what I take to be young magpies in the nest. The other two birds flew on, with the jackdaw continuing to harry the carrion crow. Whether the magpie and jackdaw were acting together or the magpie was seeing off both birds I am not able to judge.
Later, as I cradled an evening glass of tempranillo on my veranda, there came another rather more gutteral commotion. Looking up again, this time I saw a carrion crow in hot pursuit of a raven. They were soon out of sight, but the exchange of words continued for some time. The wooded area behind us is none too large, and none of these birds has a clean slate when it comes to predating on eggs and chicks, so I imagine they are often too close to each other for comfort.
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