This summer I have tended to wake pretty much at dawn, which obviously during May and to date has been very early. I have enjoyed listening to the dawn chorus which tends to fade away after less than an hour and is then replaced by a cacophony of raucous Rooks and Jackdaws seemingly right outside my window. I thought that this was the juveniles clamouring for food from parents, but it has continued daily long after the young have fledged. Then, getting up after 4am one day, I saw that the armoured electricity cable that runs past many houses on our street was packed solid with black birds! There are probably 250-300 on the cables, house roofs and large trees around us, mostly at first just sitting there quietly, maybe preening a bit but just seeming to bide their time. It’s mainly Rooks on the wires and trees, with masses of Jackdaws on the roofs.
A few days ago, I decided to go out to see when and how the birds appeared. So at 15am I took my camera and walked over the road to stand close to a hedge so as not to be too noticeable. It was still dark but the sky was gradually lightening. No activity at all at first, then a single Rook flew in and perched on a neighbour’s aerial. Then about 12 others flew around and disappeared behind me. A small flock of about 30 were next, quite quiet, spreading themselves out along the wires. Then the main show - a huge flock of noisy birds flying in from the south east, filling the cables in front of my house and around 8 others down the road, plus more cables crossing the road. Then came the Jackdaws! 50 to 60 of them appearing from the same direction but most landing on the house roofs and chimneys. It could have been a scene from the 1963 Alfred Hitchcock film, The Birds!
As it gradually got lighter, they began to drift slowly away in small groups and pairs, no doubt towards Hungerford Common for their feeding forays. About 45 minutes after the first show, they had gone, just leaving a few Woodpigeons which are nesting still in gardens.
The same day, I happened to be in the garden at dusk when small groups of corvids started circling round, rather like Starlings do in winter, and then flew off in a mass towards their roost site, probably a rookery not far away, and no doubt where they had come from that morning. I knew that Rooks and Jackdaws did this, but hadn’t ever witnessed it before.
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