It was a windy day and three of the Driveways were playing in the wind: rise, get buffeted down and back, rise and go forward, get buffeted down and back. One was doing it repeatedly, again and again and again. Another would join in and they'd scrap, get blown down and back in their battle and return to the top of the same tree before running through the whole protocol again.
I watched them with my monocular.
In the park proper, the wind seemed to make the crows edgy but it delighted the gulls.
I was bad: I threw cheesy bits for the gulls. Fifty, a hundred, gulls flocking and hovering in front and around me, like a vast living feathered halo. I threw treats to see how close they would risk diving down. One managed to get one about six feet from me and landed a few feet further away. I dropped a treat maybe five feet away. the other gulls looked and screamed and circled and hovered but would not dive. Then I saw the one on the ground scuttle across and take it. I gave him another for his bravery.
Problem was, everywhere I went I had a coronet of at least thirty gulls. When I put food down for the crows, the gulls pounced. The crows will scare off two or three gulls, but not a screaming flock.
Yet, the gulls lose patience and the crows do not.
CD, when he'd got over the wind-edginess and gull-aversiveness, came quite close today. If I throw something near me, he prefers me to turn away - and definitely to stay still. He also approaches on a zig-zag before side-stepping the last six inches to his prize. It's funny to watch. Once he has it, he seems to feel braver.
Divo and Diva are also funny as they will run up behind me - really quite close - but as soon as I turn around they rush back a yard or so.
See how slim and long Divo's (on the left) neck is compared to CD's? Actually, Diva's is maybe even slimmer.
A reminder of CD.
Anyway.
I suppose CD's caches will be safe now... apart from when Droopy or Three raid them!
Oh and this crow was looking into my garden from the next-door neighbour's aerial!
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