Rooks

 Dear reader,

 

The rook is a member of the family Corvidae in the passerine order of birds but the English name for a rook is ultimately derived from the birds harsh call. 

The population of rooks has been increasing slightly year-on-year and seems to have adapted to the various changes in agriculture practices that many other species have been adversely affected by.  

Rooks are similar in size to carrion crows although sometimes slightly smaller.  It has black feathers which often show a blue or bluish-purple sheen in bright sunlight.  The feathers on its neck and head are especially dense and silky.

Rooks nest in a colony called a rookery.  The nest is built high in a tree close to other nests with previous years' nests even being reused.  The nest is usually bulky and is and of twigs bound together with earth, lined with moss, leaves, grass, wool and even hair.

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From George Sturt  November 21st 1890 in Surrey

I noticed in the poplar above me two sorts of sound; the leaves pattering and rustling against one another, each with its separate chatter; and then as accompaniment and continuous ground-tone, the wind itself breathing audibly and caressingly between leave and round twigs and limbs.

From Dorothy Wordsworth   November 24th 1801 in Westmorland

'I read a little of Chaucer, prepared the goose for dinner, and then we walked out.  I was obliged to return for my fur tippet and spencer, it was so cold...It was very windy, and we heard the wind everywhere about us as we went along the lane, but the walls sheltered us......'

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Rooks

 

I was fourteen,

when I first heard

the call of the rooks

caw-cawing

their eerie cries.

 

From a Cornish cottage garden

I walked down through

dark woods to the beach,

a remote place,

just dunes, sand, the sea

and me, a confused, angry teenager,

with the rooks caw-cawing in my ears

disturbing my thoughts.

 

Even now, in later years,

whenever I hear whispers from the wind,

or sea lapping over large grey stones

ever forward, ever backward,

glimpse a faraway horizon

and see twilight descending

darkening the sky,

the rooks in large black groups

flying high towards

their evening bed,

cawing, cawing, cawing,

my heart misses a beat

and an unexplained sadness

overcomes me.

 

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With very best wishes, Patricia