We went for a walk after the excesses of the Christmas lunch. Strictly speaking we went for a walk to observe a jackdaw roost which I'd spotted the previous evening. This is in West Boldon, where I was born and brought up. Once a very rural area with 22 farms only 60 or 70 years ago, even in the 70's there was a lot more farmland and market gardens. Much of this has been built over, though a remnant green belt of farmland separates 'The Boldons' from Sunderland, South Shields, Jarrow and Gateshead. But it was the jackdaws I'd come to see. Growing up here, there were partridges, linnets and a whole host of other birds. But apart from rooks at the rookery in East Boldon, I can't recall many jackdaws.
Jackdaws nationally are doing well, and now in West Boldon a roost of 300-400 birds has developed. It was wonderful. As we walked the mile or so to the area, they were noisily flying over our heads in an arrow straight line. So I knew we had hit the jackpot, or is that jackdawpot. Once we were by Boldon Hall, the trees were dotted with black shapes, like confetti. Noisily they flew here and noisily they flew from area to area, tree to tree as they settled down for the night. It is adaptive generalists like corvids which are bucking the disappointing downward trend in other bird species. These two photographs look rural, yet the trees they roost in straddle the main and very busy Sunderland to Newcastle road through the village. Car drivers were wondering what I was up to pointing a camera into the trees. What I was doing was simply recording and revelling in the fact that wildlife and human activity can co-exist, as long as we give it a chance. Great walk, and the best Christmas present I could have been given, way beyond anything bought or manufactured in my book.
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