Photo-a-Day  (Monday, 10th June, 2019)

This jackdaw looks well-enough. And it appears elsewhere that jackdaws are also known to gather food for the benefit of birds outside of their immediate family. I feel there's something delightfully olde-world about the word 'jackdaw'.

We never saw Jackdaws in Shevy, but when I was at St Maries school on Almond Brooke road some of the Standish lads used to bring there tamed Jackdaws to school and leave them in a tree, and at playtime they would call them down and sit on there arms.

Hail Jack! Cheeky rascal.

Can't remember one of these being on PAD before. Are they a dwindling species in our area?

Interesting, I can't remember seeing a Jackdaw in the area, they are fairly plentiful in the Lake District where the environment is more craggy.

Good photo David,not one you very often,member of the Crow family ,that pair up for life, usually lay 4 to 6 spotted pale blue eggs. thanks for sharing.

I've noticed a lot more recently around Langtree Lane farm in Standish. I think they're beginning to move in.
I saw scores of daws up at Elterwater the other day A.W.

There are some near where I live.I never see house sparrows these days and very few sheppies.Gold finches are in abundance.Does anyone in the area still see sparrows?

A few years ago Pw, I had sparrows living behind the facia boards of my property. They'd accessed the space through a hole in the rotten soffit and I could hear them scrabbling about.
They bred successfully but I then had the entire lot replaced with UPVC shortly afterwards. Not deliberately to spite the sparrows you understand, it just needed to be done.
I left the rotten soffits on the garage untouched however, and the following year they nested in there.
25 years ago I planted an 80' hawthorn hedge which is now mature, and now the sparrows tend to congregate in there, although those damn magpies take their toll.
So yes, I see sparrows quite frequently, although not in the numbers that I did when I was a lad.
Sorry to go on, but I've yet to master the technique of explaining something without actually explaining it.

Loads of these in our back garden raiding the bird table