Fledglings galore

The resident birds seem to have synchronised their breeding to such extent that I saw/heard seven different species of fledglings or chicks in my way to work. A Blackbird (#1) fledgling gave a try to hunt for itself, its parents out of sight. It was hilarious to watch it picking up a dried berry and dropping it and listening for worms.

A lovely fluffy Robin (#2) fledgling by the university parking lot, still very naive, let me get quite close (top photo), a pair of Greenfinches landed next to it and had me confused for a while!

Then a pair of noisy rook (#3) youngsters by the university woodland area demanded to be fed, I could only get a poor shot.

The family of Wrens (#4) I pictured a couple of posts ago were still around, the young giving their calls from a bed of nettles and docks opposite the Wilberforce building.

In my way back from work, a lovely family of Long Tailed Tits (#5) 'see-see-seeing', but the young ones shun me and only gave me their tails to photograph.

In my kids school, the Blue Tit (#6) eggs have finally hatched and I watched the live footage, with one of the parents sitting on very hungry and bare chicks

Near home, the Starling (#7) adults and youngsters in the nest have starting calling to each other with their 'churrr' calls which mean that they are almost ready to leave their nests.

Alarmed wrens

A pair of Wrens in the wildlife garden called their rattling alarm calls. I am always intrigued by alarm calls. Many alarm calls are directed to the bird watcher, as we approach a nest or a bird more than it is comfortable with. In this case, the birds were directing their attention to a cat, which was going about its business in the undergrowth. The pair of wrens moved constantly around, chattering nervously. A Goldfinch sat on a branch paying a lot of attention, but keeping quiet. On the top is my best shot of one of the Wrens, and you can see a little video here.

Wren fledglings

I heard some thin calls coming from a thicket in the University Wildlife Area. Two alternating calls, probably coming from two recenlty fledged chicks. Chicks calling alternatively are incredibly difficult to locate as each call makes you look in a different direction. I spotted an adult Wren giving an alarm call nearby and waited. Eventually an adult approached one of the chicks to feed it and I could see where it hid. The chicks were sitting inside some nettles. I could only get a poor shot, but it shows the yellow rim of the mouth typical of chicks.

Mrs Black

This female Blackbird sat on a fence unfazed by my presence. She looked one way and the other while I approached and took her portrait and when I left she was still there.

The crows have frog for dinner

The pair of crows on our street has been late building its nest. After a lot of territorial fights with their neighbours, they only started last week, on top of a lime tree, but the nest looks like it is now finished. One of the pair was sitting on the nest this afternoon, and kept calling softly, made me think of the way rooks caw. The other flew to the roof nearby carrying something floppy. I thought it would be a strip of bark, which they often use as lining material, but when the crow started pecking it hard and lifted it I saw it was a frog. The crow on the nest - presumably the female- was obviously very excited about this, flew close and started flapping her wings, calling pleadingly, while the first crow fed. I couldn't see if the frog changed hands (claws?) but in crows females incubate the eggs and the male is in charge of feeding her so it wouldn't surprise me if she also had frog for dinner.

The male feeds on the frog

The pleading crow

The Herring Gull pair at The Rock

More often than not there will be a Herring Gull pair by the pond in my local park. I assume it must be the same pair, as seagulls are long-lived birds and they behave in an aggressive way to immature gulls that land near the pond. This pair likes a particular spot which I call "The Rock", a vantage point on a promontory on the edge of the pond, and both individuals often stand there side by side.
 Today, a gang of excited Mallard males were giving chase to a female and one of them started mating with her. This behaviour is common in Mallards and is known as forced copulation, where there is no display and the female is corralled by males who are not their partners and forced to mate. The gull, which was very close, saw this, walked to the mating pair, and pecked the male! Not just a gentle peck, no, she even got some feathers out of him. This was a bit too much for the drake, his passion was quickly dispelled, he dismounted the female immediately and walked away a bit ruffled while the other drakes watched. Everything happened fast and I only had time to take a shot of the last part of the scene (below).

 Ouch!

The pair of Herring Gulls at the Rock 

Some twenty minutes later I noticed the pair were calling noisily with their miaowing calls, they were feeding on something on the ground. An egg! By the look of it it was a duck's egg all cracked and its contents spilled on the path. When I went to check, it had all the looks of an infertile egg. Still, the seagulls took turns feeding on it.

 One of the Herring Gulls feeding on the egg

The spilled egg

The bird with the silvery eyes

In his most amusing book King Solomon's Ring, Konrad Lorenz described his experiences rearing a veritable menagerie of different animals including jewel cichlids, water shrews, a raven, cockatoos geese and ducks. His intention was to develop an intimate relationship with them and understand their behaviour and communication. He reared the birds himself then set them free. This allowed him to have very tame animals that could be observed from close quarters. The longest chapter is devoted to his colony of Jackdaws (Coloeus monedula), which he started by hand-rearing more than a dozen of them. He ringed his Jackdaws with colour and metallic rings and named them accordingly to their ring colours. This chapter is a vivid account of Jackdaw behaviour. Lorenz was of the opinion that you had to get under the animal's skin to understand their actions, and his fascinating account shows that he got very close to feeling like a Jackdaw and he was definitely treated by one with a male that adopted him as his partner and insisted in feeding him chewed worms.

Flying together
Jackdaws are very sociable corvids, they like to fly in tight flocks. The members flock feed together and breed together in loose colonies in natural holes in cliffs and old trees and in buildings commonly using chimney pots. He described the "kia" call as equivalent to "fly away with me" and a longer version he learned to distinguish "kiaw" as "fly back home with me". His first jackdaw, Jock found dark birds flying away from him irresistible, and would often pursue a Hooded Crow away in his walks with Lorenz. Adults use this instinct to entice young to fly with them and will keep a close eye "looking over their shoulders" as they do so, to make sure the young can follow. Lorenz noticed how adults adjusted their flight and made it slower when fledglings were flying with them, making it easier for the young to follow.

The rattling reaction
One of the most surprising discoveries made by Lorenz was the instinctive basis of the rattling reaction and how . He found by chance - by taking his black swimming trunks from his pocket - that a dark floppy object held by something was a very strong signal that started a furious attack. His tame jackdaw attacked his hand drawing blood. The pecking was accompanied by loud rattling calls. In other occasions - such as when he intended to ring the young jackdaws in his colony, he observed that holding the feathered young will draws the members of the flock together into a rattling reaction. This presumably has the function that a predator that catches a jackdaw receives such a severe punishment. The memory of the offender is imprinted into all the members of the flock participating in the rattling reaction and will persist for years and form the basis of local traditions that will be passed down generations. As the rattling reaction was elicited when Lorenz held feathered young for ringing, he decided to dress up with the only outfit he had at hand - a devil costume -  and climb onto his roof to ring the young jackdaws. A sight that shocked some of the people of his village one day.

A pecking order
The jackdaw flock has a precise stable hierarchy. There is a pecking order in which "very high caste jackdaws are most condescending to those of lowest degree and consider them merely as the dust between their feet" according to Lorenz. Males, which are larger than females are higher in the rank. High ranking jackdaws always takes the weaker side when intervening on disputes, which helps maintaining the cohesiveness of the colony. The way Jackdaws assert their dominance is by raising the neck pale feathers.

A pair of jackdaws basking in the early morning sun

Lifelong partners
Jackdaws are socially monogamous and pair for life. Pairs form on the individuals' first spring, although they are unlikely to breed until their second spring due to a shortage of nesting sites. The partners in a jackdaw pair are together all year round and support each other loyaly in any dispute. The rank of a new female partner automatically rises correspondingly in the female's rank order, a refinement of Lorenz discoveries explained in the later monograph on Jackdaws by A Roell. Lorenz said he was surprised how quickly all jackdaws in the colony knew of the rise in rank of the new partner of the recently arrived alpha male. But not only that, the female also knew that now she stood over everybody else! The male will show the female a nest site by calling her with "zink" calls. The bond between the pair is shown by allopreening, usually by the female which will preen her partner's neck, particularly his silvery feathers. The female also will beg for food and the male will courtship feed her as he will in time feed the young. Both male and female share the building and defence of the nest and the rearing of the young but only the female incubates. During incubation, the male will feed the female.

The few pairs of local Jackdaws now sitting on their nests remind me of Lorenz entertaining book.

More information
Konrad Lorenz (1954). King Solomon's ring: new light on animal ways Methuen, London Other: 0415267471

Röell, A. (1978). Social Behaviour of the Jackdaw, Corvus monedula, in Relation To Its Niche Behaviour, 64 (1), 1-122 DOI: 10.1163/156853978X00459