Sea Holly (and a tale of corvid genius)

I was a bit miffed with Lancaster City Council, as they didn't include any sea holly in this years planters, though they have in previous years.
It's probably one of my favourite- it not THE favourite- plant.

But I found some in a garden, not too far away from home, so at least I have another sea holly pic for my collection.

I was hoping to have a photo of a Jackdaw today. One was perched on my balcony wall earlier, and with the door open I had a perfect view.
Alas, the bird legged it (or rather winged it) just before I hit the shutter button so that didn't come to pass.

But it made me think of something I saw a few years back, though this may be a dull anecdote so you may want to skip it:

I was waiting for a bus stop in Heysham. Across the road, some crows and jackdaws (yes, both ordinary crows AND jackdaws together) were trying to deal with a half loaf. The bread was uncut and they were not doing to well with it.

As I watched two of the birds- one crow and one jackdaw- zoomed off down the road to a building where lots of lesser black backed gulls were sun bathing on a roof.

The two corvids seemed to attack the gulls, before fleeing back to where their friends- and a half loaf, still being problematic- were waiting.
Well, the gulls gave chase! Clearly aggravated by the audacity of these corvids at attacking and eventually reached the loaf and spotted it.

The crows scattered, and the gulls forgot all about them and began fighting over the bread, tearing it into pieces as they did so.

And back came the crows and jackdaws, each taking a piece or two of the bread, now that it had been broken into manageable pieces!

Yes, these clever birds actually used SEA GULLS as a tool to cut their bread! The gulls of course got the larger share, but the corvids all got some, which was a better outcome than if they hadn't got the gulls involved.

If that's not clever, then I don't know what is!

Anyway, if you read through that tale I thank you for your patience.

And I wish you a happy Sunday evening and a nice week ahead.