"And Grey Beard Jackdaws Noising As They Fly"

John Clare was right in his Autumn Birds poem, jackdaws certainly do make a lot of noise as they fly. Not surprising that the collective nouns for them are clattering and train.

I went to Fishers Green this afternoon looking for Egyptian geese. I didn't see a single goose in the Goosefield or the surrounding fields. I met a couple on the way back from the Grand Weir Hide and they said that they have never known so few fowl about here at this time of year. I did shoot a flock of wigeon feeding on the banks of one of the Goosefield ponds. They're lovely surface-feeding ducks, the males graced with bright yellow foreheads.

Nothing much to see from the Grand Weir Hide apart from coots and swans. Standing on the elevated walkway I could hear jackdaws approaching. Wave after wave of them headed for some trees on an island in Holyfield lake until there was hardly a perch in the roost left.

As I walked back to the car they suddenly took to the air again en masse. A murmuration of jackdaws, the starlings haven't got it all to themselves. :) Wondrous to behold and a first for me. Glad I had swapped to my faster lens as the light was failing.

PS I have since learnt that murmuration is the collective noun for starlings, not a word specifically for a flock of them making patterns in the air as they prepare to roost, even though it is often used this way. So it's not possible to get a murmuration of jackdaws. :) My pic is a clattering.