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parliaments
Anyone who has ever watched birds flocking will understand where Daphne du Maurier got the idea for ‘The Birds’ (or why Arthur Machen was inspired to write ‘The Terror’). There is something both hypnotic and intimidating about their aerial manoeuvres and tight-knit fellowships. They form tribes. And so often, people don’t. Quite regularly a parliament of rooks assembles in the trees behind my house at dusk. Often, hundreds of them show up. In the winter their evening get togethers are very noticeable on the stripped branches. They flap in like a raucous gang, settle on their perches, gossip about their day’s antics, and seem to eye us up as potential…
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two birds, one imaginary
While sifting through my photos from last year I’ve been discovering ones that I had forgotten about or didn’t have time to upload. Each image takes me back to the moment I clicked on the camera’s button. I took this image of a jackdaw in April last year. It was sitting on top of hoarding, dramatic against a beautiful sky. I got the one shot, as it flew off immediately afterwards. Jackdaws tend to be the more overlooked of the corvids, with the menacing hooded crows, scruffy rooks, and chattering magpies being the most outgoing in Ireland. Yet, I like the Jackdaw’s sleek attire and observant blue eyes. Sometimes the…
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the wren the wren the king of all birds
This little fellow had quite an escapade today. Since we’re having beautiful weather at the moment I left the back door to our kitchen/dining room open. A while later, as I tapped away on the computer, I heard scuffling noises from the kitchen. When I investigated I discovered this chap rustling about among the cups on the windowsill, desperate for an exit. This is a somewhat regular occurrence. I’ve had swallows (three in one go!), chaffinches and robins take a wrong turn and end up trapped in the house. One time it took me a couple of days to evict a tiny avian adventurer because it flew into one of…
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Jack O'Leaf
I was pleased to capture this image this morning just using my mobile phone camera. Halloween might be over, but this looks like a Jack O’Leaf to me. It was a frosty, sunny morning in the woods today, which can mean good photos if you can find a subject. There is little foliage left on the trees after the rain and wind over the weekend (not as bad as predicted). The view from my office is of my back garden, and of the three trees I can see there are perhaps half a dozen leaves hanging on grimly to the stark branches. I’ve begun putting out peanuts in feeders for…