Williamson's Weekly Nature Notes February 4 2009

He wished to relive the joys of schooldays when he had kept one as a pet but was now too busy with the daily commute to London.

I soon found a baby daw and my own schooldays came flooding back too as the bird screamed for bread and milk from dawn to dusk.

Mother took over matron duties while I was out at work in the local forests. But poor old Ken, who suffered continual pain from an amputated leg and had a daunting workload, found he would not be able to cope after all, so the by-now-fully-grown bird was set free.

It flew immediately to the nearest church tower 500 yards away and started gabbling its amazing story to all the other jackdaws hungry for news. I was pleased but surprised that the bird had so quickly abandoned its human adopters.

W H Hudson in his book Adventures Among Birds described a typical story about a jackdaw at Tilshead on the Wiltshire Downs. A boy found a weak and flightless jackdaw and took it home. In a few days it recovered and was perfectly well and able to fly again but did not go away. Instead, it attached itself not to its protector but to a much smaller boy living next door.

The bird waited for the boy each morning outside his cottage and then would accompany him to school. Not content to wait again outside, he flew into the classroom and settled down for lessons. But these were too long and dull for the bird, who would suddenly make a loud caw, which set all the children tittering. So he was put outside and had to wait until school finished.

On Sundays the boy went to church with his parents, as was the custom 100 years ago. The jackdaw went with him, riding on his shoulder. The vicar was a bird-lover and welcomed the pair into the pew. But the sermon was too long, or the Nunc Dimittis canticle too serious, and the poor bird wanted to add his ha'porth so he shouted caw. The congregation smiled and looked at the ceiling but it was just too much for the vicar and it all had to end with both school and church doors kept shut.

Really, this very sociable bird is best among its own friends, who love to babble all day long about their business. Cowdray Ruins, West Dean College, Petworth Park, Beachy Head and most church towers are where they want to be.