The Rooks and Crows are a lot cleverer than people give them credit for. I was out walking with Lucie and stopped for a chat with the farmer at the doorway to one of his barns. A resounding clank and a rolling sound made made us look up and there was a crow with a walnut dropping it on the barn roof to crack it. They like a roof with a gutter too so that the prize nut can't roll off into the grass down below.
We see them flying along with a walnut in their beaks and they're obviously heading to their favourite anvil to crack them but often they're being mobbed by their mates who are hoping for a free meal and inevitably with the aerobatics the nut gets dropped.
Some of the nuts that they drop get picked up by our Terrier as a prize to swap for a treat biscuit, Terriers are quite clever too. Other germinate and grow starting the cycle all over again.
