Great to see Graham’s description of ‘hawking’ corvids. I’ve watched this amazing autumn spectacle for several years, it’s as regular as migration, if we have a good autumn high pressure, bringing still conditions. I’m pretty sure the feed source are thousands and thousands of tiny ‘gossamer’ spiders, which cast themselves to the sky at this time of year, on strands of ‘silk’. Grassland fields, and especially fresh ploughed land will, at dawn, be covered in swathes of newly laid webs.
Watching jackdaws in particular can be fun, as they try desperately to master aerobatics!! Roger Mathias