My blog post the other day 'bird skulls from Samson' led me to look closer at some of the skulls I've have for ages. I was given a few years ago and have always believed the little labels that went with them not thinking that they might be wrong.
How I never noticed this buzzard had been labelled jay I don't know. I'm guessing over the years the labels got muddled. Anyway this is huge compared to the jay I've just unearthed and look at the hook on it. I apologise for mislabelled drawings and photos previous to this ...
... and I now know that it is a jay skull in this piece from 2011.
Finding out more about bird skulls also made me panic about the ones I had buried in my garden. I realise now this is not the best method to get them clean. Though it seams like the easiest way you can easily loose bits especially with small ones. I got them all out the other day and was a bit disappointed to find I'd left some of them for far too long.
My beautiful jay broke in half, the razorbill lost the chunky black and white sheath that I really wanted to preserve and the tiny blue tit had disappeared mostly and I had to throw it away.
But they are still beautiful and I love them all. Especially the magnificent gannet.
Labels: bones, dead bird, seabirds, skull
