Rooks

The Rooks are very entertaining this time of year around the garden.

In 2018 the trees next to Church road were topped, therefore the Rooks have moved back along the meadow to nest in trees that are more suitable and putting them in direct line of sight to the garden bird feeders.

Also the fact that the pair of Crows that were resident nearby have disappeared (they used to deter the Rooks from the garden and meadow), the Rooks now have free range feeding in Whitehead Meadow and the garden whilst present at the nest site.

Certain times of day several will descend on the garden feeders and attempt to extract seed from the feeders. However they only succeed in spilling seed to the ground for which the Stock Doves, Wood Pigeons and Ducks are very grateful for.

Yesterday a fight broke out between two Rooks in the garden and all hell broke loose. Around 30 Rooks were perched above the fight squawking whilst others were flying around above. It was akin to a playground fight scene with all the kids gathering around and shouting “fight”, “fight”.

After a couple of minutes the fight stopped, both combatants shook themselves off and the Rookery went back to normal.

Another incident happened last Tuesday around mid-afternoon. A Buzzard flew low overhead from the north east of Church road and chaos ensued.

As the Buzzard drifted over 2 Herring Gull were in pursuit calling loudly this in turn caused all the Rooks in the Rookery to take to the air and a mob of Jackdaw also joined in and then 4 Red Kite appeared to add to the melee.

The noise caused by all these birds would have caused anyone to look up to see what was going on with almost 100 birds involved.

It was all over in around a minute as the Buzzard continued on its flight path and was not bothered by all the attention it had caused.







from Cholsey Wildlife https://cholseywildlife.blogspot.com/2020/03/rooks.html

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