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.