Some bird behaviour that I noticed during this past weekend.
Jackdaws, at least 8, all acting hawk-like and taking dragonflies in flight above mature tree-top height at a park in Street. I have, of course, seen gulls, starlings and corvids catching small unidentifiable insects in flight before, and even a pair of nuthatches hovering among a swarm of small flies; but never this particular behaviour which involved a Jackdaw actively swooping to take a dragonfly in its bill, then swallowing it (or the best part of it), the whole scenario going on for at least 5 mins.
Magpies, one for sorrow, two for joy….but what do your call 14 together? Well I looked it up and the collective noun is a conventicle or a tidings (conventicle referring to a secret meeting of non-conformists). The 14 that I saw were all gathered in the bare upper branches of a mature tree on the edge of Tealham Moor, continually chattering away to one another and occasionally flying away a short distance, in threes of fours, before returning to perch once again. This went on for about 10 mins, after which they all gradually departed, flying away from the meeting-tree into the surrounding hedgerows.