When I run at Cottesbrooke, I often see a group of three crows on my way back to the car. In addition, I see flocks feeding in the fields and a few pairs or groups in the trees. I like to think that their caws are deeper than those of the park crows. There is a tendency for urban birds to sing in a higher frequency to combat the traffic noise.
Certainly, all the rural crows have less tolerance to humans than the urban crows. they fly away when you are thirty of forty yards away rather than ten or fifteen. Some of the park crows, notably CD and in former days the Fluffies, would not fly away unless they felt a threat. If the human wasn't looking at them, they'd stay put. Alert, but holding their ground.
In the fields, no chances taken. They're off.
Another difference: in my park they don't seem to bother to mob the red kites. They just wait for them to go. Down by Kingsthorpe Mill and out in the fields, though, the crows are pro-active.
The reason for the landscape photo attached to this post is that a group of crows had been feeding on that field and then all took off, screaming and wheeling - I hadn't seen the red kite, but they had. They surrounded the larger bird and harassed her until she had moved off.
Oh... wait a second, that is not a red kite - it's a buzzard... Of course, there is often a buzzard circling round in this location. Until I zoomed in on the photo I didn't notice the tail...
Buzzards, I imagine, are more of a threat. The kites would be happy enough with carrion and worms, but buzzards do kill.
So, maybe the park crows are being realistic about the kites... don't tempt them, but don't fret TOO much.
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