Jackdaws

I heard from a friend that they're called a 'clattering', anno. Driving through your village in an hour so I'll keep my eyes peeled - it must be a fabulous sight!

For a moment I thought that is was a "Parliament" but I believe that is crows or rooks.

It seems to be either a clattering or a train.

I saw a fantastic murmuration of starlings on Saturday!

Parliament is owls, Elegran, crows are a murder and larks are an exultation.

(I think)

Just a thought, are you sure they were Jackdaws and not rooks?

We have rooks marauding on the parkland, looking like bovver boys waiting for someone to get in their way. They walk around chattering and posturing, head down but eyes on me and my dog when we pass by. Fascinating to observe!

Jackdaws are smaller than rooks, phoenix and much more 'chatty'. The sound is quite different. I've seen them in an evening going to roost in a big flock, almost like starlings. I had to eject a pair from my unused chimney a few years ago. They were dropping all sorts of things down in the hope of finding a nesting place - an iron bolt was a bit puzzling, along with all the moss and stones. We do have other corvids: crows, rooks, magpies and jays.

Jack and I hand reared a jackdaw many years ago.

How lovely Phoenix. Although - was he housetrained?

Lovely Twitter feed about a magpie @breesophiebree

Sophie is the magpie and "male" (a human) looks after her.

Strangely enough there was a gathering of some kind of bird in my neighbours tree yesterday and they were very noisy. No idea what they were, though, and they've gone now.

Unfortunately not Nfk ! After the first few days he was moved from the kitchen to an adapted shed/aviary, and the whole idea was that once he was able to fly he could come and go as he pleased. There was a new house being built next door, and once he got a bit better at flying, he used to go and harass visit the workmen when they were having their sandwiches!

The first few flying attempts were a sight to behold! We had trained him to come when we tapped on his food bowl (initially he was feed using tweezers to get the food into the right place) so when it was felt he might be ready, he was taken out (he would hop onto an offered hand) put on a low section of the garden wall, we would stand a few feet away near the other part and tap the dish. There were a few crash landings, but he got there in the end!

We have jackdaws too with their little grey hoods on. I have a theory that they keep the magpies away which I am grateful for, otherwise is spend my life saying 'How's the wife?' to the annoying things. Dunno what the collective noun is though.

A clattering train?We have them in the garden and they hover next to the nut feeders a bit like hummingbirds [but not so elegant] whilst they poke their ruddy great beaks into the mesh to extract the peanuts.

Apparently the collective name is a clattering. Seems apt. We have quite a few around here and they're quite tame coming to the bird table very near the house. When I was young I craved a jackdaw as a pet. I did have a black headed gull which had been shot in the wing for a couple of years - but he was a vicious b****r!