08 Monday Dec 2025
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It was back in November 2019, at Rhossili, that I first saw Britain’s rarest corvid, the Chough, and I only managed to grab a few blurry record shots before the birds flew to a more distant location. So, you can perhaps imagine my delight when, this October, I had a totally unexpected and relatively close encounter of the Chough kind much closer to home (Choughed, 10 October). A definite highlight of my birding year!
10 Friday Oct 2025
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Tags
birding, birdwatching, British birds, British corvids, Chough, corvid with red beak and legs, Pyrrhocorax pyrrhocorax
I heard them before I saw them and, the first time, I only saw them circle overhead before they flew west along the beach and adjacent cliffs, quickly out of sight.
But then I walked around the old harbour and out to the tip of the neighbouring headland, where, amazingly, I heard them calling again. And, incredibly, moments later they flew in and landed on the rough grass not far in front of me.
I managed to get a little closer and quickly snapped off as many photos as I was able, as I could see a couple with two dogs approaching along the headland and knew the birds would fly once they got closer. And that’s exactly what happened, with the birds following the same flight line as when I first saw them.
These are Choughs (Pyrrhocorax pyrrhocorax), Britain’s rarest corvid and the only member of the crow family to have a red beak and legs. Choughs are only found in the western parts of Britain and they’re not a bird I usually see – in fact, it must be several years since I last saw one, so this was a real treat, and most unexpected.
Though I was having a wander around the seaside town of Barry, half an hour’s train ride west of where I live, that is still outside the area where Choughs are normally seen. Maybe their population has expanded, meaning this pair are now venturing outside their usual territory. Whatever the reason, I was absolutely chuffed/Choughed to see them.
29 Saturday Feb 2020
Barefaced crow is one of the common names for the Rook (Corvus frugilegus), and it’s easy to see how it came about, though it’s not so much that its face is bare but rather the top of its large, pale beak (compare the Crow on the left, the Rook on the right).
Though there’s a rookery in a nearby town, and used to be one in the woods at Cosmeston Lakes Country Park, I haven’t seen a lot of Rooks in my local area … until this winter. Now, I see them quite often, in the farm fields north of the park itself, usually in the company of Jackdaws and Carrion crows.
I was fascinated to read in my Fauna Britannica, that ‘If a death (especially of the head of the household) occurred in a family owning the land that supported a rookery, there has been a widespread tradition that the Rooks must be told.’ Let’s hope that doesn’t prove necessary!
