Stuc a' Chroin and Ben Vorich

Stuc a' Chroin and Ben Vorich

Monday 17 May 2010

Carrion Crows

Yesterday we saw two carrion crows in the rear garden finishing off what remained of a young pigeon, we think. Our first reaction was that our sparrowhawk had paid another visit, although it's never left any remains behind before for crows and the like. Then we noticed the mark on the door window and concluded that the youngster had flown into it and either been  killed or badly injured; the carrions had moved in.

Despite having bird silhouette stickers on most of the windows we still get a fair number of casualties each year, although we've revived a few unfortunates over the years too.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

These things can be a bit gruesome at times but, on balance, it's probably the food chain working as it's meant to.

We see the odd raven now around the western periphery of the West Midlands. Until very recently they were virtually unknown east of the Severn valley.

More jays and fewer magpies as well. Not sure of the significance or if it's just a short term thing.

afootinthehills said...

Thanks for visiting and commenting.

Having lots of hedges around the house we have many youngsters around - blackbirds, starlings, robins and sparrows mainly - but jackdaws too. Adult magpies are frequent visitors, not surprisingly.

Before we could clear up the feathers they were being collected by several sparrows and now they have almost gone. Nothing wasted.

Keith said...

It happens once in a while. So far they have all recovered, mostly parrots. In the Territory we had a duck one night come crashing into the living room. We think it mistook our shiny roof for water, but undershot the water/roof and came right into the house. It was shaken, but after a few days it was on its way again.

afootinthehills said...

Le Loup - A lovely story. Thanks for that.