Of birds and bees

Corvids....driving back from Crow Wood on Sunday it was getting quite late in the afternoon and I noticed groups of crows heading across country towards the village of Horsmonden, just west of Goudhurst. Coming out of Goudhurst itself I could see the birds gathering in the distance along a tall hedge at the edge of an orchard, which I assumed was to be their roost. There were rooks, jackdaws and carrion crows there in good numbers - a big corvid gathering. As always at their roosts, they are nervous, unsettled, anxious and even though I was a whole field away they did not like me stopping the truck to have look at them. The light was fading first as I watched them landing, then moving off, then returning again unsure of how far I might be a danger to them. When it was hardly possible to see them any more, I left, hopeful that they would have a uninterrupted night together.