Rookhoppers and Jackshanks

After an early morning visit to Queenborough I called in on Lower Halstow to see if any Godwits were loitering (a handful of Black-tails, nothing to write here about) and ended up spending most of my time watching the corvids. A mix of some 100 Jackdaws and Rooks kept approaching Halstow Creek from Great Barksore direction, hesitating over the yacht club as the boat owners went about their work. Finally they made a murmuration of sorts and crossed high, then low, to alight on the enteromorpha. Scanning the adjacent Twinney Creek, some further 150 corvids were already way out strung out on the green algae.I'm used to Rooks feeding on the flats, and crows in small groups, but Jackdaws do so less often. Today it was clear that some of the younger daws were not that sure what was best to eat.

Having seen en route the Funton rooks doing exactly the same it was clear the feeding must be good now, and safe. Inland, gunshots could be heard from time to time, and the birds remain wary of such threats. Knowing that groups would be doing exactly the same from Wallop Stone through to the Strand, I mused on what sort of total might be reached with a co-ordinated corvid low tide count. Musing over as, chased off by the tide, they took to the air back to the Barksore fields.

Around the same time last year I photographed some of a flock of a similar size on the Twinney saltings, and a few weeks earlier Rooks among the cord grass over the top of the tide at Funton. I might have to make them honorary waders at this rate.