A bird with expensive taste

On Mull last month we watched a Hooded Crow fly upward and drop something onto loch-side rocks. The bird would then fly down, pick up the object and drop it again; Lammergeyer like. Upon closer inspection the object was seen to be an oyster. The crow repeated the process until the oyster cracked open; it then ate the contents and then started the procedure all over again with another. Damn clever these corvids.

Crowing about it

Hooded Crows that are common further north in the UK have had a chequered history with regards to their status as a species. They have shuttlecocked between sub species and full species for some years. They are currently regarded as a full species.

We encountered several on our Mull trip in early May. This particular individual was scouring the beach for a tasty morsel among the seaweed.

Some are easy others are hard work.

The Crow family are highly intelligent creatures. Although they normally avoid human contact they can usually be approached by using a vehicle as a hide. In Scotland last month we got reasonably close to several Hooded Crows but it wasn’t as easy as it should have been. The bird that shouldn’t have been easy was the Black throated Diver we encountered at the side of an ‘A’ road casually fishing a few metres away in a loch. These are normally shy birds of remote highland waters or the open sea but this individual was keen on giving us all close views as we passed in the vehicle*

*All species of diver on the British List are schedule one species and therefore may not be photographed at or close to the nest without a licence.

Intelligence?

Sometimes Corvids can be friendly sometimes they can be decidedly shy. Whichever they are the crow family are intelligent enough to know when to be one or the other. However one particular corvid last week perhaps didn’t realise all I wanted to do was to take its photograph. It led me a merry dance around the fields on the coast. I eventually caught up with this Hooded Crow as he went to feed with Carion Crows, Rooks and Jackdaws in a chicken pen! – resourceful chap.

Hooded Crows are becoming more common in Norfolk, this being at least the fourth bird I have seen since christmas and they may even be breeding this year.