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ZEISS DTI thermal imaging cameras. For more discoveries at night, and during the day.

A slightly unusual visitor (1 Viewer)

bill moss

Well-known member
Hi folks,

Was gazing out of the kitchen window (I do quite a lot of that) a couple of days ago when a largish brown bird flew in and landed in the apple tree just beyond the arch, so not that easy to see clearly.

Immediate hope was that it might be a juv Buzzard (not big enough for an adult) but with the bins it obviously wasn't.

Got the camera and hoped that it might move to an easier shot but it didn't so this was the best that I could do before it flew off again.

Brown back, wings and tail but black head and mantle (couldn't see front), strange, but then that unmistakable bill; a partly brown Rook!

Presumable a partially Leucistic Rook. Not seen it before or since but now looking more carefully at the twice-daily invasion.

Bill
 

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Bill that's a lovely picture that must have been difficult to take. Is it really a rook? Its tail feathers don't look like a rooks. Nor does its hooked beak. Ach well what do i know anyway LOL? Whatever it is its a lovely bird and a lovely photo.
 
Well spotted Bill :t:
I've not seen anything like it before!

Now you always talk about birds coming for the scone crumbs
But surely that's not what the Rooks come for?
So what's the secret?
And how do you get so many scone crumbs anyway? o:D

Cheers

Ps great pics btw!
 
And how do you get so many scone crumbs anyway?!

It's all the crumbs left on his plate!o:D

This is what I like, to read about and see something different - and this is one of those times. Well spotted Bill, it's a beauty, but you'll have to give them some extra now...... won't you?!

Happy viewing.

Love, Sue.
 
Hi Bill,

They never cease to surprise us. That's one of the attractions of birding I think. Nice pics of something unusual.
 
Hi folks,

pleased that it interested you, it's the 'strange' ones that do make birding a hobby for life.

Anne, I've sent larger version to our local 'Rookspert' and he agrees with it being a partial Leucistic but also thinks that it is probably a sick bird.

Tony, I don't throw scone crumbs out for the Rooks, they are for the Blackbirds (mainly). Look at the photos below, they are from the two opening windows in the Kitchen. One wide angle and one a bit closer. The scone crumbs (crumpled up Supermarket Sultana scones) go just outside the window on the grass and are taken by Blackbirds, Starlings, Thrush, Robin, Spadgers, and Blue Tits (mainly). The Rooks etc are fed on the further patches of grass beyond the arch and cross-bed; In Winter I ground-feed Maize and Peanuts and apart from the Rooks I get regular Jackdaws, Woodies and C.Doves and (in season) visits from Magpies, Green 'Peckers, Jays and rarely Pheasant. At his time of year I hold the peanuts because of the young birds (in case Tits pick them up) and just feed Maize. Now the Rooks and Jackdaws are not content with that and they will raid for scone crumbs if they get the chance, which effectively means every time I go away from the windows for more than a moment, but this is variable with time of day so I have worked out a system to make sure that they don't get too much of them.

I've also been having problems with the Rooks & Jackdaws emptying the seed feeders (it took them a little time to work it out but......) so now I have had to change to 'caged' feeders as it was costing me a lot more than I wanted to spend on bird-food (more than I was spending on myself). This has had an unfortunate side-effect in that nothing bigger than a Finch can use the feeders but I've upped the scone a bit to make up.

It's all go, isn't it.

Bill
 

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Bill your garden is a credit to you. Its beautiful. You have fantastic visitors too. I'm sorry the rook probably isn't doing so good but if it keeps coming back to you for sneaky scone crumbs I'm sure it will get better.
 
Hi Anne, Chris & Kits,

Thank you, it's the end result of 40-odd years of alternate attention and neglect. I'm not really a gardener, I just put things in and wait for them to grow (they don't always).

Thanks for the invite Kits but it's not for me, this lot is as much as I can manage.

Bill
 
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