Geograph - photograph every grid square

A scarecrow - detail

The earliest known written definition of scarecrow appears to date from 1592: "That which frightens or is intended to frighten without doing physical harm." A variety of bird scarers have been placed in this field where a winter cereal crop has started to cover the ground with its velvety green shoots, protecting the crop from being eaten by birds. Besides a noise gun there are foxes fashioned from metal, white flags on poles as well as dead crows strung up head down and dangling in the wind > Link and right enough, not one bird could be observed in this field. In the UK, the crow is considered a pest and under certain conditions can be shot under a number of general licenses issued by DEFRA.

The Crow genus makes up a third of the species in the Corvid family which also includes Rooks and Jays. It is believed that crows have evolved in Asia. Crows and ravens often feature in legends or mythology as portents or harbingers of doom or death because of their dark plumage, unnerving calls and their tendency to eat carrion and they are believed to circle above scenes of death. A group of crows is called a "murder." Crows and rooks are difficult to distinguish from each other when seen from a distance. Whereas crows lead solitary lives, rooks fly together and breed in colonies (rookeries), and rooks have a bare, white patch at the base of the beak, while crows do not. According to an East Anglian saying: "If tha's a rook, tha's a crow. If tha's crows, tha's rooks."