November 2016

Crows.  Wherever you go in the world (except Antarctica!) you are almost certain to see a member of the crow family.  They are mostly large, raucous and black, though that last adjective couldn’t be applied to the jay, one of the more colourful of our native corvids.  (Corvid is the posh name ornithologists use instead of ‘member of the crow family’.)  On a recent trip to Aberdaron in North Wales, I was privileged to see two of the least common members of the crow family – the raven and the chough.  The chough is our rarest crow and there are only about 250 to 350 breeding pairs in the UK.  They are confined to the far west of the country and nest on the west coasts of Wales, Scotland, and Ireland.  In 2002, a small population re-established itself in Cornwall, a former chough stronghold.  Of course, farmers were to blame for their decline and eventual extinction in Cornwall, but in this case not for destroying habitat but for leaving it alone.  Choughs feed mainly on invertebrates, especially ants, and nest on cliffs, and the Cornish farmers stopped allowing their stock to graze around the cliffs where they were difficult to manage and moved them inland.  This allowed scrub to grow up and stopped the choughs getting at the food they were used to.  The RSPB has done a lot of work in Cornwall to restore grazing there and choughs have successfully bred there ever since.

Carrion Crow - Corvus corone corone

The other member of the crow family that I saw in Wales was the raven.  There were three of them enjoying a stiff easterly breeze around a rocky outcrop that I suspect was their nesting site.  It turns out that had I known about it, I wouldn’t have had to travel to Wales to see them because there have been a pair nesting on the East Hill in Hastings this year.  If you are down that way, it is worth looking out for them.  They are bigger than a carrion crow and just as black, so you’ll need to look for the very thick beak and the diamond-shaped tail.  The tail comes to a point in the middle, unlike the crow which has a flat or slightly rounded tail.

Rook - Corvus frugilegus (with a slightly malformed beak)

Jackdaw - Corvus monedula

There is no shortage of members of the crow family around Pett village.  There is at least one noisy rookery (the rook is slightly smaller than a crow with a whitish grey base to its beak), and plenty of jackdaws.  I admit to having a soft spot for jackdaws.  They are a slightly comic bird with their upright stance, swaggering walk and those striking white eyes.  I guess I can identify with the grey head as well.

The more colourful members of the crow family, the magpie and the jay are regularly seen in the village.  Jays are as common as magpies but less often seen as they stay hidden in trees and bushes most of the time.  Late autumn is a good time to see them as they come out to collect acorns which they stash away to eat when the weather gets cold and food gets scarce.

You can’t avoid seeing magpies with their flamboyant metallic blue wings and their boisterous habits.  I was recently told of a magpie with a deformed leg which despite that handicap was getting about and apparently feeding well.  Magpies, along with all other members of the crow family are intelligent and resourceful birds so it stands a good chance of survival.

Recently, nature has suffered a great loss in the death of Trevor Buttle.  His knowledge and cheerful enthusiasm for the natural world will be greatly missed.

Pied Crow. Madagascar

Australian Raven, Australia

It seems that I don't have any other photos of UK corvids - perhaps they are too commonplace, a situation I will have to try and rectify.  Meanwhile here are some from other countries...

Azure-winged Magpie, China (Note this is the same as those you will see in Southern Spain but the jury's out on whether or not they are the same species

Red-billed Magpie, China

Jackdaw - Corvus monedula, Sweden