1 - Black Birds and Kentishmen

A Country Year - Black Birds and Kentishmen.

January 1st to January 18th

From British Song Birds by Neville Wood (1836) - Garden Ouzel. This well known bird is resident and common in every part of the British Islands, and is one of our most admired songsters. It inhabits such various localities, that it is no easy matter to determine what are its favourite haunts. I think, however, that it is mostly found in walled gardens, and woods near houses, abounding with laurels and other thick bushes. It is also frequently found in hedges adjoining low and damp grounds, where its food is abundant.

From The Birds of Norfolk by Henry Stevenson and Thomas Southwell (1866) - Blackbird. Common throughout the year, and migratory specimens apparently arrive in the autumn, but being a much hardier species than the song-thrush, most of our native birds remain throughout the sharpest winters. However deep the snow or intense the frost, the alarm note of the blackbird is still heard in our gardens and shrubberies, as he scatters the flakes from the powdered laurels in his hurried exit; or his jetty plumage contrasts with the white covering of the ground, when, half running, half leaping he leaves the well-known imprint of his feet, diverging here and there as his quick eye detects some chance morsel, till, head erect, he listens to approaching footsteps, and then a little scuffle in the snow, and the slight markings of his outspread wings show where he took to flight.

From British Song Birds by Neville Wood (1836) - Garden Ouzel. By approaching very cautiously along the hedge, you may have a chance of observing it, feeding on berries of the hawthorn and holly. But if you are not very wary, the bird will be aware of your approach before you perceive it, and suddenly a "black bird" will start out of the hedge, and conceal itself in an adjoining one further on. If in the breeding season, it will shortly be followed by its mate both sounding their alarm notes. It is a peculiarity with the Garden Ouzel, that it seldom or never takes wing without uttering this note.

In winter, its food is the same as that of the other British Turdinae, namely, the berries of the hawthorn, holly, ivy, blackberry, mountain ash, &c., to all of which I have observed it to be extremely partial. Few trees, whatever be the situation, retain their beautiful and ornamental produce, after the frost and snow have fairly set in. For, while the snow remains on the ground, such wild berries as the woods and hedges afford, form the sole support of the Turdidae or Thrush family. These gone, the Thrushes and Ouzels are willing to beg for food at the parlour window, along with House Sparrows, Robin Redbreast, Hedge Dunnocks, Common Gallinules, and other birds.

Birds, Beasts and Fishes of the Norfolk Broadland by P. H. Emerson (1895) - The Starling. When the sere reed is circled with ice, you may any winter night, just as the red sun sinks down the grey sky, see flocks upon flocks come spreading across the grey for perhaps a mile, all flying from the cold marshlands or fenman's stacks in parties which circle around over the reed-bed a few times and then sink into it with innumerable chatterings to sleep though the icy night-watches whilst the water freezes hard and clear below them, and the tassels turn to frosted silver above them; for the starling is one of the hardiest of birds. But even he is of use to the fenman; he is a lower of wire-worms, and will follow the plough steadily day by day in search of the hideous, foul, tough-skinned wire-worm, that lover of carrots.

A Country Year - Black Birds and Kentishmen.

January 1st to January 18th

From British Birds by William Henry Hudson (1895) - Although a digger and plodder, the starling is very different from his companion, the rook, in manner. The rooks are seen soberly marching about, quartering the ground, each one intent on finding something for himself. The starlings are not nearly so methodical; they run about a great deal about a great deal on the feeding-ground, and watch and interfere with each other. When one finds a rich treasure, the others are eager to share it, and there are occasional scolding matches, and sometimes downright quarrelling, among them.

The starling is also a fruit eater, particularly of cherries; and in winter, when insect food is scarce, he will eat berries, seeds, and grain.

The starling sings more or less all the year, but his song is at its best in the spring months. He has no such melodious notes as distinguish the warbler, his merit lies less in the quality of the sounds he utters than in their endless variety.

From British Birds by William Henry Hudson (1895) - If the jackdaw is not the first of his family in intelligence, he is certainly not behind any of them.

The social disposition of the jackdaw, and its friendliness towards other species of its family, is no doubt favourable in the long run to it; for by mixing with rooks, both when feeding and roosting, he comes in for a share of the protection extended to that bird in most districts. There is also a sentiment favourable to the jackdaw on account of its partiality for churches and castles: the 'ecclesiastical' daws are safe and fearless of man while soaring and playing round the sacred buildings in villages and towns; when they go abroad to forage, and are not with the rooks, there is danger for them, and they are, accordingly, wary and shy of man.

At all seasons the jackdaw loves to consort with his fellows, and to spend a portion of each day in aerial games and exercises: the birds circle about in the air, pursuing and playfully buffeting one another, and tumbling downwards, often from a great height, only to mount aloft again, to renew the mock chase and battle and downward fall. They are loquacious birds, and frequently call loudly to one another, both when perched and when flying; the usual call-note has a clear, sharp, querulous sound, something like the yelping bark of a small dog.

The jackdaw is omnivorous, but subsists principally on worms, grubs, and insects, which it picks up in the pastures where it feeds in company with rooks and starlings. It spring it will eat the newly sown grain, in autumn devours acorns and beech-mast, and in winter will stoop to carrion.

Birds, Beasts and Fishes of the Norfolk Broadland by P. H. Emerson (1895) - The Jackdaw. The crafty "cadder," as the Broadsmen call the Jackdaw, is by no means common in late spring and early summer, though in early spring and autumn he is frequently to be seen on the marshes in company with starlings and rooks, all paying delicate attentions to the herds and flocks, perching on their backs and picking off the lice they harbour. In this wise the cadder is the farmer's friend; but he makes the farmer pay for his slender services; for he, too, is a lover of young corn, as also of worms, young birds, pieces of fresh meat, and the farmer's strawberries. In winter the cadders are black on the land, for many have come over the seas with the rooks and starlings.

A Country Year - Black Birds and Kentishmen.

January 1st to January 18th

From the Norwich Mercury E. Kay Robinson (1903) - The cold weather had not lasted four days before the rooks had forgotten that they are "the farmer's friends," and had commenced pulling holes in the thatch of the corn stack to get to the grain within. When thus engaged, if rooks see you approaching from a distance, they have a sly habit which betokens a guilty conscience. They all leave the stack, departing in different directions and flying low, making no noise, so that, unless you chance to catch sight of them from afar off, blackening the roof of the stack, you would not know a rook had been there. "And where do they go?" If you peep over the hedges, you will see them sitting quietly on the ground, in companies, in the centre of neighbouring fields; but so soon as they see your head over the hedge, guilty conscience speaks again, and they are off. Although rooks know well enough how to take advantage of a look-out in trees for solidary sentinels, they understand the strategic advantages of a position on the ground in the middle of a field, when a large number of them want to watch a suspected stranger without being seen themselves. They can keep their eyes on you as you pass on the other side of the bare hedge, and if you go straight on without pausing to peep over they conclude that their trick has succeeded, and you will not have turned your back upon the spot for long before the roof of the stack is black with them again. This manoeuvre explains, I think, what otherwise would seem a curious habit of the rooks and the crow birds which flock with them at roosting-time. Then you will see them sitting in their hundreds in the fields surrounding their roosting wood, large parties constantly coming and going until dusk falls between the wood and the fields, In the woods they are noisy, but silent on the ground. No doubt from these various points they command views of the various approaches to the wood.

The hoodie crows, which congregate with the rooks in the same roosting-places at night adopt the same tactics, and were not above joining the rooks in larceny from the corn-stacks. Indeed, watching the birds tugging off the straw thatch, the hoodie seems to work in a more business-like manner of the two, and, being a more powerful bird, he probably does the greatest damage as an individual. But what the rooks lack in strength they more than make up in numbers, especially as the hoodie has other sources which often take him away from the fields when the rooks are busiest on the stacks. When the tide goes out, the hoodie knows that sand flats stuffed with cockles or rocks crested with mussels will be left bare, and his powerful beak is usually just equal to the work of hammering and splitting these shell-fish open. The rook's mere slender bill seems too weak for this work, so the hoodie has the shell fish to himself, while the rook remains in the fields to look after the farmers' corn-stacks. When, however, the tide comes in and covers the sandflats and rocks the hoodie turns agriculturist again and meets his friends the rooks where turnips are being distributed to the lambing ewes. Neither rook nor hoodie is adverse to a square meal of turnip when frost holds the ground, and the crow-scarer has been told to protect the stacks and the standing crops of roots. Do these able marauders know that guns must not be fired off near the lambing ewes?

From British Birds by William Henry Hudson (1896) - The rook is common throughout the British Islands, and is our best-known large land bird, being everywhere the most abundant species, as well as the most conspicuous, owing to it great size, blackness, gregariousness, and habits of perching and nesting on the top of trees.

A Country Year - Black Birds and Kentishmen.

January 1st to January 18th

Birds Beasts and Fishes of the Norfolk Broadland by P. H. Emerson (1895) - We come to the black crow, a distinct bird from the grey crow in my opinion, with due difference to what has been said to the contrary, though, as it is well known, the two breed together.

The black crow never flocks (although a clutch may be seen together in autumn); the grey crow does flock, sometimes in large numbers.

The black crow is resident in Norfolk; the grey crow is a migrant, though isolated specimens do stay throughout the breeding season, but I have never heard of them nesting.

The black crow loves the open marshes and mudflats.

The black crow is quicker and shyer than the grey crow, and more restless. The grey crow will sit for in damp weather, moping like a wood-pigeon.

The black crow is rare in the Broadland, for coverts are rare and gunners plentiful, but occasionally he is to be seen.

Not so with the "Kentishman," or grey crow, who is one of the commonest winter birds of the marshland - a brave freebooter, in handsome uniform, who ranges from the sea to the upland, through snow-blast and sunshine, a spirit of the lone marshland, one of its winter voices. Indeed, he is one of the most familiar birds of the district - a handsome, rather sluggish bird bird, dressed in black and grey with a powerful black bill.

Soon after Michaelmas, when the Broadland is a harmony of blue and gold, the grey crows arrive in large flocks, and, separating into small parties of fifteen or twenty, they scatter over the Broadland, some of these flocks dividing into smaller parties, finally dividing into pairs, or even going singly; and when nearly all the bird life of the district is starving with hunger, the grey crow is busiest. All winter long, whether in sun or hail, in sunshine or fog, you will of a morning see the grey crow leave the alder by the broads, where they roost, near to the rooks, and go with sluggish flight to their beats, for they are late risers; nor are they so active as a rook, moping as they do, on grey foggy days, like wood-pigeons - an altogether different bird from the active, alert black crow.

They frequent stack bottoms often, hunting for rats and mice, and when the weather is very hard, you may see them, along the frozen roads, after which they will beat heavily over the marshes in search of carrion or mice, which they swoop down upon, and if food fail them there, they take to the sea-beach or mudflats, feeding upon dead fish and worms; or else they go to the stacks and rob the farmer of his corn, pulling it out secundem artem; or else they hie to the green turnip-fields for worms and slugs, and in an Artic winter they eat raw potatoes and turnips to stay their pinched stomachs.

All winter through you may hear their hoarse cawing - bird calling bird through the dreary landscape. "Quah, quah, quah," a cock will call, and his rival, some hundred yards off, will answer in the same tone of voice, "Quah, quah, quah." Then his voice will grow shriller, and he will call quickly, "Quah, quah, quah," and his rival will again answer in the same tone of voice, till both, tired out, will cease calling.

Once thought to be just a colour variation of the black Crow, or Carrion Crow, it has been discovered recently that the grey Crow, Kentishman, or Hooded Crow is a separate species.

The Carrion Crow - Corvus corone.

The Hooded Crow - Corvus cornix.

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