One of the advantages (usually) of having a dog with you if you’re interested in birds and when you’re out and about, is that many species are prepared to come much closer to you than would normally be the case simply because they’re nosy little blighters and want to know what the big four-legged furry thing is up to. This particularly applies to most Corvids and even some species of Raptor and the Chough shown in the picture above was one of a pair who proved to be a lot nosier than most. In fact, he flew to within five metres of us several times in a more inquisitive than aggressive kind of way above the cliffs close to Church Cove (see opposite) during our stay on the Lizard Peninsular in October.Choughs are doing extremely well on the Lizard and I had sightings of them at more than a dozen places along the coastline between Coverack and Mullion. I was also very interested to note some of their other many and varied antics as well, particularly with regard to their behaviour towards Buzzards, Sparrowhawks, Merlins and Kestrels when, more often than not, they were quite happy to join forces with gangs of local Gulls, Jackdaws, Magpies, Carrion Crows and even the odd Raven or two in order to see off their much-despised avian adversaries.