Rooks have left the Ancient Rookery (1 Viewer)

Massive gathering of Rooks and Jackdaws over the old Rookery yesterday in the very high winds from the tail end of Storm "Barney".
I was cycling along the side road in the morning and watched a Black headed Gull try to cross the road in front of me. Each time it came up from behind the hedge it managed to cross the road but was unable to continue and blown back behind the shelter of the hedge. It must have tried this half a dozen times nearly at ground level.

However the Rooks and Jackdaws were having a really good time about a hundred feet up in stronger winds. Swooping and tumbling and masters of the sky. I would have thought that a gull was much more aerodynamic than a crow and much more adapted for harsh weather at sea. Crows look to have much more drag but this does not seem to be the case in practice. Perhaps crows are just stronger.

So no shortage of numbers of Rooks and Jackdaws still here, and the roost is still full. The birds are dibbling in the grass field outside my house as I write and we live about two hundred yards from the old Rookery. But they have shown no other interest in it apart from flying over it occasionally. I have never seen one land in it since they left.

The mystery continues!

jack harnser said:

Thanks for that Mick.


I am about to go down to the roost wood with my Sony Video to try and record the roost, so while I am there I may ask them what on earth do they think they are playing at!

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just remembered that I forgot to follow up this post.

I went down there and it was fascinating to watch the gathering at the roost. Unfortunately the light was too bad to capture it on video but apart from the early smaller gatherings in various Ash trees a few hundred yards from the main roost I was interested to see a group of Carrion Crows watching the whole thing quietly from a nearby electricity line.
They sat there silently occasionally wiping their beaks clean on the wire until the darkness descended and they drifted off.
Interestingly for such a canny and intelligent bird I saw one fly into a cable, it was not flying very fast but it was enough to make the bird fall to the ground.
I went over but it flew off apparently unharmed, probably a bit embarrassed!
Maybe it was a young one.

Ploughing today I was followed by a massive flock of Rooks, Jackdaws, small flock of Starlings making a welcome return, inevitable Black Headed Gulls. But it shows that the Rooks are still coming to their old fields in numbers.

The roost is still as busy as ever.

I also had a first in my 45 odd years of ploughing.
Right in the middle of this dry grassland that I was ploughing, well away from water I spotted a strange creature crawling through the grass only inches from the tractor wheel. At first I thought that it was a rodent but then I saw the two golden lines down its back and realised that it was a Jack Snipe. It had its head so low in the grass that I could not see its bill.

I have never seen a Jack Snipe before, here or anywhere else. It seemed such a strange place for it away from water and also fearless of an eight ton tractor roaring by inches from it.
I never saw it fly and it was not there on the return run.

Anybody know any more about these birds?

First rooks now house martins

I found this thread while anxiously searching for a reason for the abandonment of our 70+ year old rookery. We are on a farm in Wiltshire and there has always been a huge rookery in the line of beech trees in front of the house and in the adjoining Wansdyke which runs through the farm. Last year there were far fewer nests and this year absoluteley none. A few nests started in one tree, but they have now gone too. We are missing the noise, morning and night, as they circle round the house, and now becoming apprehensive about the superstition of death!

The beech trees may be reaching maturity as they were planted in the 20th century and one was recently blown over. Has anyone come up with other ideas? Anyone else had the same experience?

To add to our distress, it is nearing the end of May, and our house martins, normally nesting all along the roofline of some buildings, have not appeared. Last year dozens, this year none. Is it Armageddon?

Birdwatch Wiltshire said:

I found this thread while anxiously searching for a reason for the abandonment of our 70+ year old rookery. We are on a farm in Wiltshire and there has always been a huge rookery in the line of beech trees in front of the house and in the adjoining Wansdyke which runs through the farm. Last year there were far fewer nests and this year absoluteley none. A few nests started in one tree, but they have now gone too. We are missing the noise, morning and night, as they circle round the house, and now becoming apprehensive about the superstition of death!

The beech trees may be reaching maturity as they were planted in the 20th century and one was recently blown over. Has anyone come up with other ideas? Anyone else had the same experience?

To add to our distress, it is nearing the end of May, and our house martins, normally nesting all along the roofline of some buildings, have not appeared. Last year dozens, this year none. Is it Armageddon?

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I am really missing our rooks but they still feed in the same fields on the farm and still roost in a massive roost about a mile from the old rookery.

I visited my farming neighbour about three miles away and he is a big shooting man. We were having a coffee in his conservatory with the doors open and he was complaining about the rookery at the end of his garden He said that until a couple of years ago there were only half a dozen nests but suddenly the rookery has increased to over fifty nests and they were making too much noise.

This is in easy flying distance from our own rookery and I believe this is where they decided to go.
Quite what the attraction is I am not sure as they had far more peace where they were with the additional benefit of not being shot at!

I thought that the phrase "up sticks " may have originated from rookeries moving and that it was perhaps a well known phenomenon. However some sources say it is a Naval term meaning to raise the mast before setting sail.
Or on land pulling out the tent pegs.

My mother just died on Wednesday evening but she was 91 and I am pretty sure that old age was the factor rather than departing rooks!

I have been warned that this thread is over seven years old! But I must mention that the Rooks have not returned anywhere on the farm. Another sad fact is that my brother died in 2020 although not directly involved with this farm, he was obviously a close family member. He was 74 and had been unwell for some time and it was not Covid.

jack harnser said:

I have been warned that this thread is over seven years old!

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Hi Jack... this isn't anything to worry about, just that sometimes it's better to start a new thread. But your post is obviously on topic.

Though I'm so sorry to hear about your brother... having lost my sister 18 months ago I'm in your space too. It's also sad to hear that the Rookery seems to be permanently abandoned.

Just speculation, but is there any sign that the wood of the ancient rookery has deteriorated through tree disease or unrenewed old age trees? Is it possible that the Rooks have abandoned it just because the satellite rookeries have proved to now be better quality woodland for breeding Rooks? The removal of the nests certainly indicates that the resident pairs deliberately moved rather than disappearing.

John

Jack, were there any new phone masts or electric pylons put into the nearby land or fields? could it be a frequency change that made them all disperse?