Stormy Weather

[doversoul1]

just before we leave the crows behind can some one help please .... quite some years ago [about fifteen or so] we visited Pevensey Castle, a splendid place, there were beautiful jays [i believe] - a magnificent grey plumage and a crest on their heads .... menacingly beautiful creatures .... has any one seen these birds? and can you identify them for me please?

I don’t think the birds you saw were jays.

http://www.rspb.org.uk/wildlife/birdguide/name/j/jay/index.aspx

Jays are lovely birds but I wouldn’t say they are magnificent and in the least menacing. Any more details?

[vinteuil]

aka calum notre jazzbo -

ah, yer actual Garrulus glandarius - one of my fave corvids...


the pictures provided by mercia in #3314 and doversoul in #3316 are all you need for identification - the jay is surely one of our most easily identifiable birds!

They're fairly common here in Shepherd's Bush - they're much disliked by many birdologists 'cos they predate on eggs and fledglings of other - more vulnerable - birds.

But they are magnificent in their own right...

https://www.rspb.org.uk/wildlife/birdguide/name/j/jay/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eurasian_Jay

[Anna]

What size were the birds, medium like starlings or large like crows? Only crested bird I can think of at the mo are waxwings, but they only overwinter and are pinky brown, not grey (what time of the year was it and were they actually within the Castle or by the shore?)

[vinteuil]

Only crested bird I can think of

well, there's always your Upupa epops - but then it's hardly grey...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hoopoe

[mercia]

waxwings

this waxwing is fairly grey

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fb/Cedar_Wax_Wing.jpg

[doversoul1]

This?

http://www.rspb.org.uk/wildlife/birdguide/name/g/greyheron/index.aspx

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

size of crow, quite large; most definitely grey and unlike the pics above ... iun and around the castle including the then rather nice restaurant [some 15 years ago] ....

apologies for misleading you all but i think they were jackdaws or hooded rows ...



and i do think jackdaws were the birds in question .... many thanks for your interest and help .... let me say that the Castle is well worth a visit ...

[vinteuil]

size of crow, quite large; most definitely grey and unlike the pics above ... ....

well, there are 'leucistic' rooks and crows, a whitish aberration which can appear pale, cream, or grey...

https://www.garden-birds.co.uk/birds/rook.htm

[Anna]

and i do think jackdaws were the birds in question .... many thanks for your interest and help .... let me say that the Castle is well worth a visit ...

I lived near Pevensey for a while and it's been baffling me that I never saw any menacing crested birds lurking around the Castle! Glad that seems to have been cleared up.

[Richard Tarleton]

Waxwings are normally to be seen in winter scoffing cotoneaster berries in supermarket car parks. Hooded crows only seen in Ireland or northern Scotland (unless you're extremely lucky). Hoopoes - scarce spring and autumn overshoots from the continent. As Bill Oddie remarked, they're only seen on vicarage lawns.

FWIW, pictures in bird books are of limited use. Birders (pace Vinteuil, birdologists a whole new subspecies) rely heavily on an indefinable je ne sais qoi known as "jizz", which is an amalgam of general posture, behaviour, flight shape etc - about the last thing one looks at is colour. Also, most bird book illustrations represent the bird posing helpfully in profile, whereas what one usually sees is a rear view as the bird scarpers.

[salymap]

Light snow falling and colder than yesterday. What's the weather like where you are?

[greenilex]

Hard frost this morning, but nice and sunny just now. Take care and keep warm!

[Serial_Apologist]

Very dull and misty with sleety drizzle right now, temperature 1.5 C. We have a very cold week ahead, but, with any luck, temperatures should start picking up again by Sunday as the Scandinavian High retreats and the Siberian airflow we're under is pushed away by advancing Atlantic lows.

[Anna]

It only dipped to 1.5 last night, a slight frost, now 2.5 and dry, sun breaking through mist so not too bad. Met Office have Level 3 (Amber) cold weather alert for England (-6 at night) but not Scotland or Wales so looks like I'll escape the low night time temps

[Serial_Apologist]

I've just totted up the January temperatures, and for here the average has worked out at 0.3 C above the January mean. No records broken, then!