Seven Hundred And Sixty Jackdaws

I felt sorry for Dominic, he had driven from Muswell Hill in the hope of sitting in the Bittern Hide and seeing the eponymous bird, which has put in an appearance there over the past few days. The hide was locked. :( He progressed to Longlands Hide where he found Ollie dog and me sheltering from Dennis' rain.

As soon as we arrived I was struck by the number of black-headed gulls in the field in front of the hide. I thought of my mother and granny telling me that gulls inland is a sure sign of bad weather as the birds leave the coast and come to the fields. That doesn't apply these days as many gulls live in the countryside. According to Dominic the flock totalled two hundred and seventy-four.

Jackdaws were wheeling around the farm buildings getting ready to fly off to their roosting site on Holyfield Lake. Dominic reckons about seven hundred and sixty of them. He counts all the birds that he sees and uploads the numbers to a citizen science project. Good on him. :) The chimneys of the Rye House Power Station can just be seen in my pic.