Monday 26 October 2009

Black is Beautiful

It is always great to see the colourful birds like the Goldfinches and Blue Tits visit the garden. But there are others, less showy, which visit from time to time. I often have Rooks drop in, especially when I start putting out the fat balls. This morning it was the turn of a Carrion Crow. It appears to be totally black but closer inspection shows different shades of black and dark greys.

Carrion Crow


Carrion Crow

To my eyes it looks just a beautiful in its own way as any other visitor. Before the introduction of wheelie bins, when rubbish was put out in black sacks, they were regular visitors on refuse collection days tearing great holes in the sacks to get at anything edible. These days I normally only see them in the fields mixing in with the Rooks.

19 comments:

  1. I never see Rooks or Crows feeding in my garden although I do see them in the top of the trees sometimes and on the house roof and often hear them too. I wonder how long it will be before they are trying to unhook the fat balls in your garden like we saw earlier in the year!

    It posed particularly nicely for the second photo :)

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  2. Hi Jan. I think it's the first time I've seen a Crow in the garden though the open fields are only six houses further down the lane.

    The Rooks will have to learn a new method as I don't use the pole they sussed out. This time there is four inch wide wood above the fat ball holders so we will see how they cope with that. Also they are nearer the building which may put them off.

    In the last photo it had just spotted me so was ready to beat a hasty retreat ;)

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  3. I've got a real soft spot for the corvid family. Super intelligent birds. That pose in the second shot shows he knows it too.
    Cracking shot John.

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  4. Agree John, saw a documentary once where the little devils were emptying bins, very intelligent and the restraint and cooperation they displayed was amazing. My favourite is to see them tumbling in the air on a windy day, they obviously enjoy it.

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  5. Hi Keith. Thank you. Yes, they are always interesting to watch. Saw one today fly very close, and just a couple of feet above the ground, past a group of pheasants in a field. I'm sure it chose that route on purpose.

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  6. Hi Adrian. I hope you find some decent weather soon. The Crows used to work in little groups and I never saw them argue. They took it in turns to drag stuff out and then shared the spoils.

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  7. Super pics & detail of this haughty individual John. They are definitely more intelligent than most people give them credit for. FAB

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  8. I was listening to a bird scientist talk recently, Graeme Gibson beleives that the corvid (crow) family are exceptionally intelligent and that we have grossly underestimated them. You just have to watch a group of crows work together to solve a problem to see that!

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  9. I love the super Corvids. My mission is to get up close to a Raven and take a photograph. Lovely shots.

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  10. I've always had a soft spot for crows. Not sure why, perhaps it's the way they hop about on the ground sometimes - there's something comical about them.

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  11. I think Corvid looks particularly majestic in the second shot, and his stance is such that it would appear rather imposing and impressive on a large poster, or even a postage stamp. The first one looks like he's just preparing to step into his imperial pose. Great photos, although nothing starts with H. ;)

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  12. Thank you Frank. I was fortunate that the Crow came quite close to the building and was so engrossed it didn't notice me for a couple of minutes.

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  13. Thank you to The Watcher. They are great to watch as they work out solutions to problems. I hope you manage your Raven close shot.

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  14. Hi G L W. All the corvid family are interesting to watch. They do look ungainly moving around on the ground.

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  15. Hi Glo. Although the second photo looks like a majestic pose it had just noticed me and was deciding whether discretion was the better part of valour :)

    Re your recent blog entries. I hope you find your mouse soon and yes - there is the odd unused power socket here. Only because I changed some of the doubles to triples!

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  16. I love Corvids,they are so cheeky. We have Rooks, Jackdaws and hooded Crows, visiting the garden and the Hoodies are probably my favourites, although I really like them all.

    They have all so many colours in their plumage; Rook is blue tinted mostly with a hint of purple, the Jacks are grey/blue and the Irish Grey Crow, also has blue and violet like tints.

    Great shots, John.

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  17. That is a couple of great shots of "Joe Crow" John.

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  18. Hi Yoke - sorry I seem to have overlooked your comment. Good job I checked back.
    The corvids are an interesting family to observe. I love their waddling walk with the tail end swinging from side to side. I don't think I have ever seen a Hooded Crow.

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Thank you for visiting. Hope you enjoyed the pictures. Any comment, or correction to any information or identification I get wrong, is most welcome. John

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