Query on sighting at Stocksfield

[merryshields]

I'm trying to identify a bird seen beside the A695 in Stocksfield, near Broomley First School.
It was around the size of a jackdaw, blackish-brown all over with clear white and black stripes along the rear half of its wings, which ran all along and showed on its back when it was on the ground. The beak was perhaps red.
Sorry for the somewhat vague and untechnical description. It was alone in a recently cut field of stubble and flew a short distance low when I approached.
I thought it might be some odd member of the jay family.
Can anyone help?

[Gill Osborne]

It sounds like a jay - though my first impresssions of jays (when they've exploded from nearby shrubs as I've been driving by) are of a pinkish-coloured bird with a flash of blue on the wings.

It probably IS a jay - we all see things differently :t: Lovely birds nonetheless o:)