Something missing in our street

It's been a long, long time that the birds have not been singing in the trees – at least in my garden, where once the bulbul and the Palestine sunbird gave song. Gone too is the Blackbird that used to sit on the tall fir tree that I could see from my office, sending calming melodies in through the window to brighten my day. But something else has taken its place – a big unattractive bird with an awful squawk - I think it's a rook with a huge wing span that seems to like swinging on the branches of my large walnut tree up amongst the telegraph wires … yes, I know I still have the old type of wires as our street was bypassed when they mapped everything underground. I really miss that blackbird though …

In fact our street that encircles a small 'Tell' was built over an ancient settlement. In the digging for foundations of a few houses within a 2 km radius around us, many archaeological sites were found ranging from huge wine and olive presses to an assortment of very large stones and walls. Everything was coming up stone – but no pottery strangely enough.

Within our own front garden we found two stone pillars, and two large (60cm x 1.15cm) blocks of hand molded stone that now serve as garden benches! Of course we notified the Department of Antiquities in our excitement, but the Department is so overwhelmed with all things archaeological from one end of the country to the other that precious little would be developed if we stopped at every uncovered piece of old stone. Our little 'tell' had been designated a residential area, and thus of no interest. And so we kept our ancient stones in the garden for our own enjoyment, and the olive and wine press got covered over with cement – waiting ad infinitum for the next round of developers to discover and perhaps turn into an archaeological park when the houses no longer have any interest.

…what am I thinking? … an archaeological park in West Amman?

But where would all the roads, cars, offices, banks and tower blocks go if we dedicated all that wasted space to antiquity and the odd bird or two?

I just thought, maybe, it would be nice for the kids ... seeing as they don't come out to play on our street, they have nowhere to go … the 'arab harra' never stood a chance in the face of all this development – and neither did my blackbird. J

Note:
I have since discovered that what I have in the garden is a 'hooded crow' (Corvus cornix) (sometimes called Hoodiecrow) and it is a bird species in the crow genus common throughout Europe and Asia, including the Middle East. . Well I wasn't far off as the rook is also of the same genus. Here is what wikipedia has to say about this bird:
"The Hooded Crow, with its contrasted greys and blacks, cannot be confused with either the Carrion Crow or Rook, but the kraa call notes of the two are almost indistinguishable. The flight is slow and heavy and usually straight. The length varies from 48 to 52 cm. The diet is similar to that of the Carrion Crow and it is a constant scavenger. It drops molluscs and crabs to break them after the manner of the Carrion Crow. On coastal cliffs the eggs of gulls, cormorants and other birds are stolen when their owners are absent, and it will enter the burrow of the Puffin to steal eggs."

So when I master the art of photographing birds I shall post a picture of my new visitor's mugshot .... so until then, check out the photo of a Hooded Crow at Mansour Mouasher's Birds of Jordan site: http://www.pbase.com/mansour_mouasher/image/36533314