Friday 3 October 2014

Clever Crows

The crows are the cleverest of birds, they also seem often to be the most fun-loving of birds.

I was fascinated by these carrion crows on the deserted playpark at Musselburgh. They seemed to be really enjoying themselves as they jumped around the various climbing frames. Apologies for the very poor quality of the photo.

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After walking past these crows, I walked along the John Muir Walkway to Musselburgh Lagoons. The young gannets were perfecting their diving technique in the Firth of Forth, while nearby wigeon and velvet scoter floated by. The Lagoons were packed with birds and I was (unusually) the only birdwatcher. There were hundreds of oystercatchers and curlew, one whimbrel, plenty of teal, four snipe, a barnacle goose looking lost and a pink footed goose with a limp.

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If you've spotted any clever rooks (a species of crow) then you may be interested in taking part on the British Trust for Ornithology's survey

5 comments:

eileeninmd said...

It looks like the crows like to play too. Sounds like a great outing..I love to see the Gannets diving. Happy weekend!

Maureen @ Josephina Ballerina said...

Hi Juliet,
Inspired by your post, I Googled crows. I did not know they mate for life. The bunch that lives by us occasionally scold Josephine. I think they do it just for fun.

Anonymous said...

yes, the crow is a smart bird and I'm sure does love to play - they never get run over by cars and trucks like so many other birds - always know when to get out of the way

Jenn Jilks said...

Aren't they amazing? We have a trio of crows, I often caw back at them!

Sallie (FullTime-Life) said...

That was a good birding day Juliet -- and we too have noticed that crows seem to love to play (I've never seen them with their own playground equipment before though -- yours are lucky ;>)!)