Jack and Vera are very much a couple. A couple of Jackdaws.
They live amongst the chimney pots on the chimney stack of the house opposite.
I have shamefully named them Jack and Vera after that eponymous pairing of Duckworths from television's "Coronation Street".
The opening title shots of terraced roofs and chimneys of that celebrated soap-opera, clearly suggested that the two beady-eyed birds opposite, with their raucous devotion, take on the monikers of that long-standing pair of pivotal characters.
I wholeheartedly apologize for my personification of those two particular specimens of corvus monedula........but hey.
I have casually observed the comings and goings of J and V for some time now, and feel I know them quite well.
I have been party to their territorial defenses......(and it has to be said, you cross gladiatorial beak and wing with Jack and Vera at your own peril !).....and have cheered their valiant victories.
I have rejoiced in their feathered fledglings good fortunes, and actually witnessed their first-flights with dewy- eyed pride, as if they were my own.
I coyly notice the caring and sharing that goes on between them, and ridiculously feel their discomfort when wind and rain oblige them to hunker down, wet and bedraggled amongst their adopted ceramic flues.
I actually become vaguely concerned when they are not there, however rarely that may occur, and in contrast, take irrational pleasure in noting their constant presence each time I glance out of my window.
Thrilling two birds with one throne.
They naturally have absolutely not the slightest inkling of my own existance at all, and clearly could not care less about anything else other than their own endeavours......they're birds afterall..... but I cannot help regarding them as good neighbours........and in fact, thinking about it........…compared with some.....??!!
