18^th June 2014.

I was woken this morning by the din of rooks. Last year they lived in the willow tree at the end of the road. During the winter they moved to the sycamore tree in our next door neighbour’s garden. I enjoyed the striking image of black scruffy shapes against bare branches and twigs. Now they have moved to the trees at the bottom of our garden. They are the noisiest birds imaginable and they drown out the melodious dawn chorus we have been used to.

The old collective noun for rooks is a “Parliament.”  It is perfect. They create a cacophony of sound, a harsher more abrasive version of prime minister’s question time.  They are probably trading insults and trying to outshout each other. There seems to be no semblance of discussion, only a constant squawking which could be the rook version of “Hear! Hear!”  nor is there any evidence of a Speaker rook calling them to order.  

Meanwhile it is costing us a fortune in corn for the chickens, and seeds and suet pellets for the other garden birds. The rooks have worked out they have a good billet here tucking in to all this food we provide.

I was worry they would attack our other  bird visitors, or at least their eggs or chicks, so I look it up on line. There seems to be no evidence that they do attack, although they eat road-kill and have pretty eclectic food tastes. Of course- once I start searching there is no end of fascinating information to distract me from what I should be doing.

The British Garden Birds website tells me “Rooks are rarely alone and so their raucous caws can become overwhelming.”  That’s another thing about the internet, you can always find out things you already know. I did know they are intelligent birds, but it seems that in  laboratories they even learn to fashion tools. The BBC Wildlife website reports that one learned to twist a piece of wire into a hook to fish for a can of food. The website points out that this has not been known in the wild. The scientist, aptly called Mr Bird, speculates why this should be the case. I question why on earth would they need to do this in the wild? On the other hand they may just do it in the privacy of their own homes or in cages they may just do it to entertain their human guards.

The BBC also informs me that they are unpopular with farmers because of their omnivorous diet and “in spite of their reputation for intelligence, they can’t tell the difference between discarded turnips, those the farmer has put out for sheep, and those he wishes to sell.”

I feel guilty but I look up “How to get rid of rooks humanely”. Basically there isn’t a way apart from shotgun fire and that might scare off the other birds which  we have spent the last twenty years courting. When the shooting season starts there will be shoots  across the field at the bottom of the garden. Pheasants seem to come into our garden then as a safe haven, a gun free zone, but it is possible the guns will scare off the rooks.

A few weeks ago we had a village Fayre and there was a scarecrow competition. Perhaps my neighbour still has the one she made so that I could borrow it. I think I will probably have to resign myself to closed windows and ear plugs and look forward to the dawn getting later after Saturday.