Something out of Hitchcock - Rooks perhaps?

[werdnal]

Just been outside and witnessed a great kerfuffle from a flock of birds. We don't have rooks here, but they are in the churchyard about a mile away across open fields behind our house. Never usually even hear them from here, but for some reason there was suddenly a huge flock, must have been around 30-40 birds, and we guessed possibly rooks by the amount of noise they were making. They were circling around a few fields away, initially just above hedge height. First we thought they might have been mobbing a predator, but they rose up and continued their noisy behaviour. Then thought perhaps a bird of prey, but try as we might we could only see all birds the same - no buzzard or anything being attacked or driven away. They gradually got higher and higher, until they suddenly stopped their noise and dispersed. Must have gone on for a good few minutes, then silence, like someone had switched the noise off instantly. What was going on?

[Beekeeper]

Possibly Jackdaws, they congregate in a very large ash tree at the end of my garden and make a dredful din sometimes, they seem to arrive chattering away and leave the same way.

Ian