Rooklets
This is a very rooky area. Rooks are intensely social birds and it’s not uncommon to see a big tree with eight or ten rooks nests, next to another, next to another.
We had a very lively rookery here when we first moved in. They were noisy (next door hated them) but we loved our rooks. And then they went away.
No idea why. Maybe because the tree is partly dead? Do they have an instinct not to nest in dead trees? No idea. (Behold a scholarly discussion of rook nests in stag-headed trees).
One by one the nests vanished. Stolen to make other nests in the neighborhood, I guess, or just blown away. Only this one remained.
Sorry for terrible picture. It’s a phone snap from a long way away.
I sat in the garden in the sunshine today – first of the season – and was astonished to see a rook in this nest. See that forked thing sticking up? That’s her tail. I had no idea until the male landed nearby to feed her and she shifted. She’d been sitting immobile for so long, I thought that was an old piece of wood or something.
I can’t tell you how odd it is to have a lone rook nest in a tree.
Rooks lay end of March, beginning of April. Incubation period is 18 days. Today is April 19. Ladies and germs, I reckon we have rooklets.
Posted: April 19th, 2023 under animals, birds.
Comments: 6
Comments
Comment from Mark Matis
Time: April 19, 2023, 8:58 pm
Would that be “rooklets”?
Or perchance “rookies”?
Comment from Armybrat
Time: April 19, 2023, 10:32 pm
We had a lot of mockingbirds when we first moved in. Pretty annoying because they’d start their songs about 4am. And then we didn’t have them. We discovered we had an Osprey. He took out most of the mockingbirds, some squirrels and a fair amount palm rats. We’re happy to have him in the neighborhood!
Comment from Durnedyankee
Time: April 19, 2023, 11:13 pm
I miss our Mockingbirds. State bird and all. Son #2 does not, for the reason you mention about the concerts at zero dark thirty.
Now we have Bluejays, a Redheaded Woodpecker who is very bossy, Redwing Blackbirds, and a noisy mixed squadron of Whitewing and Mourning Doves. Oh, and greedy acrobatic squirrels who we shout at to get off the feeders. I admit to using an old Airsoft pistol the boys left behind to take potshots at them if the shouting doesn’t work.
And I’m waiting for the Mississippi Kites to return from their winter in South America.
Rooks, no. Bigass Texas Crows though.
Comment from ExpressoBold Pureblood
Time: April 20, 2023, 4:30 pm
Interesting, “A brief history of the green man”…
This archived approach lets us read the article without having to “register.”
Comment from S. Weasel
Time: April 20, 2023, 5:58 pm
Wikipedia tells me we don’t have rooks in America, so there…
Interesting, Expresso. We sat through a whole lecture on the green man once. Though I think the speaker, while very good, had a bit of an axe to grind.
Comment from ExpressoBold Pureblood
Time: April 20, 2023, 9:32 pm
The Anglo Saxons and the Celts, of course, resented the very existence of the Normans, which was (is) understandable…
Write a comment
Beware: more than one link in a comment is apt to earn you a trip to the spam filter, where you will remain -- cold, frightened and alone -- until I remember to clean the trap. But, hey, without Akismet, we'd be up to our asses in...well, ass porn, mostly.<< carry me back to ol' virginny