Birds in black and white

The promise of snow seemed to bring gulls and crows to join the usual mallard ducks onthe Somes river in the middle of Cluj. The almost completely white gulls are all confusingly blackheaded gulls. The grey and black crows are hooded crows and the occasionalall black ones are rooks. There were also some jackdaws on the bankside, recognisable by their grey hoods. The crow family are the cleverest of birds when it comes to tool using and problem solving. They have been seen to use twigs to draw ants from underground nests and I have seen them soaking dry bread in birdbaths to make it easier to break up and swallow. On a cold day it is the gulls that show the most enterprise though, out mobbing ducks and crows to get to bread thrown into the water.