Dr. Fionn Ó Marcaigh

It's not quite a blackbird, but it's more musical than this anyway.

And then there's other interesting calls.

I haven't heard any just in the time we've been under this rookery, but while I've been counting them, I do hear them make these much gentler, softer sounds to each other, which remind me a little bit of quite a lot of how a raven communicates.

You know, that sort of a little bit like a honk, but, you know, it sounds very vocal.

It sounds like talking in a way that this type of call doesn't.

So I have heard that from them.

That's right.

I mean, as a whole, their kind of plumage and appearance is quite sort of plain.

You know, they're dark all over.

They stay that way than the males and females.

They look the same.

Yes, well, before I worked for the National Parks and Wildlife Service, I already had an interest in birds and in wildlife and everything.

And in that time, I wrote a book which was published by Natural World Publishing, Encounters with Corvids, it's called.

It's not a particularly scientific book.

It's kind of telling stories about the animals.

I was kind of basing it on nature.

michael viney's approach in his columns you see in the irish times where you kind of encounter an animal in the wild and then go from there to observations about natural history and its place and everything so it's kind of it's aimed at the general audience not at the specialist ornithologists although i hope they'd enjoy it too and it's a lovely read because i finished it in a day thank you terry