The real tweet

Just a few minutes ago, late afternoon here in Epsom, coming on for dusk, I noticed a large gathering of crows, maybe a hundred or more of them, in one of the trees at the top of the garden. The tree just to the left of the pointy topped conifer right. Possibly a walnut, common enough around here.

For the avoidance of doubt, zoomed into the tree in question. 

I think I have noticed this sort of thing before in this particular tree, and we have certainly come across it in spades in a tree behind a holiday cottage we used to take in (Lower Furlongs) Brading, on the Isle of Wight.

Now, with my memory being a touch unreliable since the recent holiday, I am not so sure. Jury out.

While I think the piece I just came across at reference 4 is just a spot of Sunday trivia. At least, speaking for myself, there is far too much flying in the world, far too many runways and I cannot work up any tears for either passengers or airlines on this question of charging for baggage. Best left as something for people in Tier Three business studies schools to write essays about? Or would they do better learning to be plumbers or electricians? Might sound a bit blue collar, but there is plenty of money to be made in the domestic housing sector and you don't have to worry about AI or robots.

PS 1: the Gemini line is that while a walnut is certainly the right sort of tree for this sort of thing, he knows nothing of any preferences beyond that. No obscure bug which crows are fond of which is only to be found in the winter on walnut trees. But he does add carrion crows to the mix. Not sure how I might check that one.

PS 2: the gmaps reference for the Brading tree is roughly 50.680560, -1.139875. The tree would be somewhere near the stream, just to the north of the road. Maybe there is a tree geek out there who can pick out the tree in question?

PS 3:having consulted her big bird book from Readers' Digest, BH is quite sure that the birds which appear regularly on our back lawn are carrion crows. Readers' Digest also tells us that carrion crows sometimes flock in the top of trees, in the way of rooks.

It seems that the rook has distinctive white flash around the top of its beak, so it should be easy enough to distinguish the two on the ground. I must investigate the feeding habits of rooks: am I ever likely to see them on our lawn?

I might add that starlings flock in Epsom, in the top of trees, in much the same way as rooks. Sparrows go for much smaller trees and bushes, I think preferring leaves for cover. While redwings and some tits sometimes move around in small flocks. But that is not quite the same.

I should also say that, for a long time, I thought that the crow was a sort of crow. - but I now know that this is not the case. I think BH fell down the same hole.

PS 4: error alert! This afternoon, I thought I saw the crows again, but BH was not having it: dead leaves, she said. This time I remembered that I was wearing my indoor glasses, took the trouble to get the monocular out and dead leaves they were. There was a magpie in a neighboring tree but he made a bigger blob. Plus the distinctive long tail. So now I am completely confused - and I guess I shall just have to wait for reappearance. Or admit that BH was right! Hmmm.

Maybe the eyes saw what the brain told them to see.

Possibilities that Gemini did not think of. He just assumed that when I said birds that there were birds... A weakness I have noticed before.

References

Reference 1: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2025/02/double-wigmore.html. See end of post. Looks like the houses just outside Victoria Station to me.

Reference 2: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2023/01/choices.html. Where Court Farm of Epsom used to be.

Reference 3: https://psmv2.blogspot.com/2014/07/twit-log.html. The original Brading.

Reference 4: Will Europe’s planned luggage rules kill the budget airline business model: Proposed changes could lead to higher fares for passengers, warn analysts - Peter Campbell, Financial Times - 2026.