Corvids: Stone the Crows!

I thought that may catch some people's attention, CORVID, not Covid! As I said in Birds Part I (blog) my next Bird Blog Part II will be about Crows, although the book's* chapter is called Orioles, Shrikes, Crows and Starlings, I have only noticed crows during the last few months exercising (me, that is), and I can't even remember seeing a starling would you believe?!? Also, I have never 'stoned' a crow but I have certainly had a few surprises in my life, and seeing my first Jays when I started as a postgrad research student, many years ago now, shocked me a little as they are so wonderful to look at! Anyway, the relevant chapter image in The Complete Birdwatcher's Guide for this chapter is above, and is of a Jay, so a good place to begin...

I've seen Jays towards the Old Town end of Barley Lane during my Coronavirus Crisis exercise walks mostly across Hastings Country Park, it is primarily a woodland bird, but is well adapted, like most crows have become, to farmland, towns and gardens too. As I said, when I first saw a Jay I was impressed with its colours, with pink, purple, blue, brown, cream, grey, black and white, it is certainly a striking sight, as can be seen from the photograph above. Like humans they are omnivores, but with a slightly different range of diet, they eat acorns, nuts, seeds, worms, insects, small mammals and nestlings of other birds... I'm okay with the nuts, thank you.

Strangely, representatives of all 4 members of the crow family I have seen during these walks over the past few months are not to be seen in the north of Scotland (presumably they dislike cold, or cannot cope with the competing wild haggis, maybe 😉), although this is not true of all Corvids, for example the Raven, which I haven't noticed hereabouts, but from which the name Corvid comes, corvus being latin for raven. In addition to Jays, I have also seen the ubiquitous Magpie, plus Rooks and Jackdaws galore, and they are all omnivores, frequenting all manner of abode.

I have shown the RSPB image of the Jackdaw with the description (and you should never forget it now, unless you already knew, of course) because, apart from the Magpie, and Jay, once you've fathomed out which crow it is, it is the easiest to recognise, and I have seen them right across Hastings Country Park, and often seen them down by the black net huts in Rock a Nore Road too, searching for scraps, and less aggressive than the gulls! I call them all 'Jack' wherever I see them, the strange person that I am, the lockdown reducing my human contact has meant me talking to all and sundry during my walks, birds, ponies, cattle, sheep, foxes, rabbits, you name it!

Anyway, back to corvids and the Magpie, which you can recognize from its chattering long before you see it (YouTube), and which is a bird with many superstitions surrounding its history, so if you see a bloke saluting magpies up in Hastings Country Park, it is very likely to be me, not that I'm superstitious, touch wood...  And Rooks, well, they're black crows basically, omnivores etc etc...

The next chapter of the book* is called Tits, Nuthatches and Treecreepers, so Birds Part III will be called similar, please do watch out for it, many thanks.

* John Gooders The Complete Birdwatcher's Guide

Photograph of the Jay with thanks to Alan Price and the Sussex Wildlife Trust, and of the Jackdaw with thanks to Nigel Blake and the RSPB.