Jackdaws with unusual degrees of white speckling have been a part of the garden scene at a friend's house. It has continued for more than 30 years and is said to have been there for many years before that. They have permanent homes in a set of chimneys under which no fires are ever lit or probably will be, by the present owners. That the habitation had been long established came to light about a quarter of a century ago, when the then owners decided that an upstairs bedroom, which, many decades before, had been an elegant drawing-room with a fine fireplace, should have a fire lit in it occasionally to complement the central heating.
A sweep was commissioned. After a preliminary poke or two, he had his forebodings. It seemed to be blocked from near the fireplace itself. But he laboured on, and suddenly the chimney began to pour a deluge of sticks and soot and unidentified bones that, in no time, had spread across the floor and even to the foot of the bed. A giant heap dating back from God knows when.
Jackdaws are the smallest of the crow family, and in appearance have an elegance of their own, with the grey nape and sides worn like a cloak. Gilbert White of Selborne mentions them as having nested in rabbit holes and even at Stonehenge: 'These birds deposit their nests in the interstices between the upright and the impost stones of that amazing work of antiquity', the upright stones being 'tall enough to secure these nests from the annoyance of shepherd boys, who are always idling around that place.'
They are said to make good pets but have an unfortunate tendency to seize on bright objects like jewellery. Fergus Kelly in his book (recently quoted here) Early Irish Farming, tells us that birds which have fallen from their nests can be reared as pets with relative ease. 'They are particularly intelligent birds and adapt readily to domestication.' An old Irish law text, Bretha Hemed Toisech, deals with offences by a pet crow, which is expected to be kept on a string. Legal commentary also refers to a pet jackdaw. David Cabot in his Irish Birds estimates that we have about 210,000 breeding pairs in Ireland; magpies outnumber them at 320,000.
Protective cowls of strong wire are often seen on chimney pots. These are conical in shape and will stop the birds building a nest. But they won't stop jackdaws, out of habit perhaps, from dropping twigs down through the gaps in the wire. Maybe for sentimental reasons.