Jackdaws And Jays

[vfr400boy 3,112]

I had a rook when I was younger found on my dads Alotments fed him on dog food and beef scraps he fallowed me every were flying along side my push bike , always had shit on my shoulders tho !! Grate pet tho ( bit noisy at times )

[Lutra Lutra 611]

Almost forgot, about 3 Summers ago I found a young Rook right in the middle of the village that I would say was thrown out of the nest. It's beak was a bit deformed and he had 2 white wings. I thought he was a Magpie when I seen him first.

I brought him home and had him in a cage in the kitchen. I was hand feeding him dog food every hour or two and after a few days he'd hop onto my hand to feed.

But f**k, was he noisy. He'd see me coming and start screaming for food. At the time I had around 8 terriers and they'd join in.

One day i was talking to a neighbour out the front and he heard me and started, then the dogs started so I culled him and gave him to the ferrets.

Then after I culled him I was offered good money for him, always the way.

Excellent anecdote Neil. Always interesting to read...

[Lutra Lutra 611]

When we were young lads we supported an hairstyle that resembled an overgrown (Magpies) nest. Many other people referred to us as the Hairbear bunch, from the famous cartoon of the 3 bears in the (1970s) childrens television. At the time we had carrot coloured hair, until later in the coming years we decided it a good idea to start to get an haircut and start dressing more appropriately. "As the years passed by our hair started to change to a more lighter tone and we had cleaned up our act and certain erratic behaviour.

However, while friends were chasing girls and drinking we thought it more satisfying chasing different kinds of birds.

This brings myself to the tale about the Magpies we had as youngsters. Their names being Popeye and Jack. Myself ,a friend and my brother located a Maggies nest in large,thick , overgrown Holly bush. Our friend climbed to the nest securing one ugly almost featherless Magpie chick within his grasp. after he had completed the short climb we all stood huddled together admiring our new found friend of the bird world. Popeye soon became tame and had full liberty of Mother's residence and also a warm dry place to live in outdoors. Even now after all those years I can quite clearly remember him flying all around the numerous houses within the vicinity of his outdoor flight. He also liked to spend a lot of his time in Mother's house, constantly finding something mischievous to do. He loved stealing bright objects, rings , old marbles and he would flutter onto a ladies or girls shoulder and constantly peck and pull at their earrings. Now to be very truthful I forget of how we came about our other mischievous little imp, Jack. If I fast forward all I can say is they made a somewhat wonderful double act. In the end they got too good at stealing peoples belongings, and I will have to ask my brother to what happened upon them. They were beautiful striking birds and the black,@white plumage have an high gloss of blue, purple, bronze or a green colour in different lighting conditions.

I did notice that jack was larger than Popeye, so he was the male and Popeye a female. I know through many hours of study that they cannot be separated by plumage alone.

However, if 2 birds are seen side by side you can always make out the larger male. Plus females beg for food; and the female only incubates the eggs just like the female Jackdaw. Also another way to sex the birds are by looking at the outmost primaries.It is possible to distinguish first- year from older Magpies from the shape and also the appearance of the outermost primary. In adults, there is a relatively small black tip at the end of the birds primary feather. Whereas, in the first- year bird the primary is less curved and has much more black on the tip. Also I have noticed after considerable watching, that in first year birds the feathers are not so glossy like the adult birds.

Other people have also noticed younger birds outer tail feathers are more rounded whereas in adult birds the out tail feathers are more square in shape. I do know that Popeye got some damage to her leg after a certain numbskull put some wire around one of her legs so she could be identified. We managed to cut the wire free and I don't think the friendship after that particular episode lasted much longer.

My brother had a wonderful Jay a few years ago now, and just like our Magpies the jay was given free reign to come and go as pleased. The last time my brother saw him he told myself little "Jaybird" had found himself a female companion.Unfortunately he wasn't seen after that, but my brother somewhat assured myself that little Jaybird had finally eloped with is new found love. My brother has all fields surrounding him, getting Sparrow hawks on his garden is a common occurrence, but he told Mr Sparrow hawk hadn't harmed little Jaybird.I agree with brother, that Jaybird found happiness with his new found love and they flew to an area to produce some little feathered fellows. "Who knows what happens in such certain circumstances"?

"Quite easily he could have come a cropper and ended up on Mr Sparrow hawks dinner plate".But seeing no such evidence of such a spectacle, but seeing him with another Jay, one tends to favour the latter option. Who knows, oneday he may come back begging for food!

 

Regards, Lutra.......

Edited March 22, 2016 by Lutra Lutra