9th
January, 2003
To many people, any large black bird is a
crow, but it is worth looking more closely at these birds
to learn to distinguish their different appearances and
habits. The two which are hardest to distinguish, in
England and southern parts of Scotland, are the rook and
the carrion crow. The old saying that 'if you see a group
of crows they are probably rooks and if you see a single
rook it is probably a crow' is some help. If you can get
a closer look, the rook has a grey beak, whilst that of
the crow is black. The rook also appears to have 'baggy
britches'.
Hear at Ackworth, carrion crows nest in the school
grounds but rooks have not returned to breed since
deserting the rookery some years ago. With some
justification, other birds in the grounds are wary of the
crows and will sometimes mob them. Crows will take eggs
from nests and I have watched one dragging a young
starling from a nest on the roof of the Andrews Wing. The
rooks can often be seen feeding on the cricket field
during the summer months. After one of their visits, many
tufts of moss can be seen sticking up from the ground
where the rooks have jabbed their beaks into it,
searching for things such as leather-jackets and beetle
larvae.
Jackdaws, with their silvery grey necks and bright grey
eyes are easy to identify. They often join the rooks to
feed and can be picked out when flying by their smaller
size and stiffer wings. Jackdaws at Ackworth can be seen
on chimney pots and on the old oak trees at the edge of
the cricket field. There is a little competition between
the jackdaws and stock doves for certain holes, such as
the one in the wall where the Andrews Wing ends on Back
Lane.
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