Jackdaw

A dreary winter's day with almost non-stop rain and scarcely a glimmer of light. I made an early trip to Waitrose to fetch the turkey and most of the Christmas food - when I left the shop at 8.30 it was hard to detect that the sun had even risen! Most of the day was spent on Christmas preparations - a bit of tidying, making a Cranberry and Amaretti Semifreddo for Boxing Day and cooking the Spiced Red Cabbage in the slow cooker. 

Between times I kept an eye on the garden, as the bird-feeders were super busy. Fat balls were attracting Starlings, Magpies, an unexpected Ring-necked Parakeet and a small gang of Jackdaws. The sunflower seeds were attracting heaps of Blue Tits, Greenfinches, Goldfinches as well as several Great Tits, a pair of Coal Tit, a Robin, some Dunnocks and a solitary male Blackcap.

This is the first year that we've had Jackdaws visiting the feeder. When we first moved to Peterborough in the mid-1980's they were very uncommon, confined to some areas of pasture woodland with old trees. Their numbers have increased significantly and they've been well-established locally for a while, but previously they've always been too shy to come down into the garden. I think the recent cold spell made them pluck up their courage - we may live to regret their attention!