Country diary: Birds of a feather in a noisy argument | Mary Montague (opens in new tab)

Queen’s University, Belfast: The corvids in the branches above me spring a surprise – there’s a black crow among themThe rain hurries me to shelter at the woods’ edge, but I’m scarcely under the branches of a mature sycamore when the canopy starts to thrash. Abrasive voices erupt from the foliage as a rabble of crows dispute. One leaps into a gap between the leaves, crouching, its ash-grey body low over a branch and fanning its black tail. The throat inflates to bray the bird’s anger. In resp...