Food in the wild is getting to be at a premium. In summer, groups of jackdaws with their young descend excitedly to the garden and socialize while grabbing food, hanging out when it's gone, etc.
This morning, Granite (left) and her mate came by, and whereas in summer they both stroll around nonchalantly, getting pretty close to me and not minding if I'm moving, using the garden as a stopping point for safe grooming and napping, being choosy about which cat food grains they select, etc., this time, as is winter protocol,
the mate landed on the roof and, keeping me well in sight through the widow, set about scanning the skies and nearby trees while Granite, also on high alert and looking behind herself, grabbed as much cat food as she could and then they both winged it tight over the eave.
A little while ago a gang of four young jackdaws came by too, and instead of raising a ruckus and attracting more for a mob for safety, as they will in less lean times, they set about silently alternating sentry duty and grabbing cat food as quickly as possible, making quite a mess. If I stand up at these times, most of this group will fly to the fence but they'll come right back; one or two won't move at all. They see me as an ally (although one to be very cautious around, like if there was tame bear in the woods that you knew you could walk near without being attacked, but you know, it's a bear...). They've seen me chase the cats away from the cat door when they're feeding, seen me warn them about cats in the garden (what they can't know is one of our cats in too inexperienced and lazy to catch one unless it were injured or ill, and the other is purely concerned with the cat food they knock down for his fat ass). They saw me help Freddy when he was so terribly injured.
The magpies are downright hilarious now. There's one who seems to be alone who is very excitable, and will slam into the cat food pile with a great deal of wing-fanfare, snatch whatever it can without stopping, and disappear back over the fence in 2 or 3 seconds. Another loner is very bold around me and will just stand there snacking and watching me through the window. I'll bet when summer comes and I read out there a lot, he'll come hang out like some of "my" jackdaws do.
There is also a group of four magpies now; a pair who turned up last year have stuck around despite the removal of the juniper grove behind us, and their two kids have stayed too. What is the collective term for magpies? [Google event occurs!] Why, it's one of four things! Murder - like crows, gulp for some reason, charm (I like it!), but my favorite: tiding! So OK, we have this small tiding of four magpies now and they're hilarious.
Their coordination is astonishing. I'll do a video of them soon. The four of them show up (remaining silent unless one raises an alarm) and one lands on top of the neighboring houses on the other side of the gardens and scans the skies and the alleyway and me through the window, another lands on our fence and scans the surrounding gardens, a third lands on the ground inside the garden next to the bin I put the food on and scans the cat door and ground-level area, and the fourth one lands on the bin, selects the cat food it wants, and then flies really fast to the arbor, where it lays out and inspects its booty before picking it all back up more carefully. Simultaneous with that one's departure from the bin, the one on the ground flies straight up about two meters to observe the surface of the bin, I guess in case anything is leaping upward as the other one is leaving, and then follows it. All four disappear in four different directions and I can hear them chattering for a couple of minutes as they regroup somewhere out of sight.
Rinse and repeat.
Unfortunately, these guys have no distinguishing marks so although I can tell two apart by the way they act when they are getting the food, and thus know that more than one do that part, for all I know I can only distinguish one and the other three all act alike, etc... I mean, maybe it's the parents always doing the raid or always being on point, or maybe each of the four has a specialty, or none do... Anyway, I love 'em.
Their raid is over for now but I'll try to get a camera set up for later. They book it if I get up or appear to show more than cursory interest in them. I can watch them, but not alertly, like a predator. Wild birds in general find it seriously suspicious if you try not to look like you're looking at them. That is creepy stuff, man. Just glance at them and let your body language show you thinking, "Oh look a bird. Whatever, who cares." That way they allow the slightest possibility you aren't focused on eating them. Even birds I "know" well get creeped out if I "try not to look at them".
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