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Message: <blockquote data-quote="jack harnser" data-source="post: 3402426" data-attributes="member: 87329">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!</blockquote>