As I walked my guide dog, Trigger this morning, in The LawnsI heard the familiar chatter of a magpie, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KXoTUS5I_ks. I am fortunate in living close to The Lawns, historic parkland in Upper Norwood which attracts a wide variety of wildlife. Sometimes in the wee small hours I hear the sharp bark of a fox or the mournful hooting of an owl as he prowls? (can an owl prowl, probably not)! In search of his prey.
Upper Norwood is, as it’s name suggests high above sea level. When going into central London for work I certainly notice the difference in the air quality, Upper Norwood being far less polluted than London itself.
(There is an interesting entry on The Lawns here http://www.londongardensonline.org.uk/gardens-online-record.asp?ID=CRO040).
K Morris - Poet 
Ahhh, how I miss Magpies. I am from Newcastle but now live in Inverness which sadly doesn’t have any Magpies, although it does have plenty of other compensations such as deer and pine martens, but now and then I would gladly sacrifice them all just to be able to hear and watch the Magpies. Thank you for reminding me of them, I had forgotten to remember them for a while now.
Also, I should add that apart from being fascinating creatures in their own right they are believed to be possibly the most intelligent of all animals. By fulfilling certain criteria such as passing the mirror test, using tools and showing signs that they mourn or grieve, thus understanding death, they are right at the top as regards intelligence in the animal world. They also exhibit teasing behaviour towards cats and even foxes in order to drive them away.
And also finally, the dictionary describes prowling as moving around stealthily, so I’m sure it would be a very apt description of an owl and quite right too because “An Owl on the prowl” has a rather wonderful ring to it.
Thanks once again,
Mark
Thanks for your wonderful comment. Having read your description regarding the intelligence of magpies I will be doing some further reading on these birds. I recollect seeing something recently which said that magpies are, contrary to popular belief actually frightened of bright objects – do you know whether this is true?
I have never visited Scotland but it is on my list of places to visit soon.
Thank you for this information, I had not heard about it but I’ve just been reading about it and it seems that after various tests and experiments that magpies indeed don’t prefer shiny objects. And more surprisingly as you noted they seem to exhibit a certain amount of fear and wariness towards these objects especially when they are introduced as new objects to their territory. The scientists are saying that this wariness fits in more with how they would expect a magpie to react to new objects and are now saying that this ‘fear’ is another sign of their intelligence. It would seem that they’ve just had some bad press over the years being classed as thieves, although I doubt that this research will make any difference as regards peoples view of them.
Perhaps it is because they are so intelligent that they arouse so much suspicion and superstition, which is very telling in some ways. Another indicator of of higher level of intelligence as well as the ones that I mentioned before is the ability to lie and deceive because it takes so much brain capacity to be able to think of several outcomes to a certain reaction. It is in many ways quite disheartening to realise that one of the first things to be done with the wondrous gift of intelligence is to use it to your own benefit at others expense. And of course the animal that is best at this deceit is the human.
Thanks again for the information, I would have been unaware of it without you pointing it out.
Also when you do visit Scotland I highly recommend the Highlands and especially the north west coast of Scotland.
Thanks,
Mark
I am sure evolutionary biologists have written a good deal on the subject of intelligence in birds. As you say, it is a shame when intellectual ability is misused although humans do this consciously while animals such as magpies act thus due to instinct. Thanks for the recommendation re Scotland. Its stange, I have visited China and Sri Lanka but never popped to see my neighbour in Scotland!