
Rookery Wood - Cameos of Birdlife #2
Not far from where I used to live as a child (see photo in the previous post), close by the village church 1 there was a rookery. I would often stay out, well past my bedtime, watching and listening, until all the sounds of the day had faded away; and there was just the stillness before night ...
nightfall
the rookery hushed
- bedtime
The daylight has lingered on longer than expected, but now the gloom of the short January evening is settling down fast in the wood. ... There rises a loud though distant clamour of rooks and daws, who have restlessly moved in their roost-trees. Darkness is almost on them, yet they cannot quite settle. The cawing and dawing rises to a pitch, and then declines; the wood is silent, and it is suddenly night.
From - January in the Sussex Woods - Richard Jefferies
For more beautiful writing on Rooks - Tish Farrell (Writer on the Edge) has written a wonderful series of posts about the rookery behind her house.
Organized Chaos In Rookery WoodAnd now it really is bedtime.
Notes
The header image is from an original watercolour - ‘A Parliament of Rooks’ by Winifred Marie Louise Austen, 1876 - 1964
Winifred Maria Louise Austen (1876 - 1964) - was an English illustrator, painter, etcher and aquatint engraver. She was widely admired and collected; even the naturalist Sir Peter Scott – himself so able a wildlife artist – said Austen was, ‘certainly the best bird-etcher of this (last) century’.
Citation
The recording in this post is used here under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 4.0 license. This and many more can be found at - Xeno-Canto
Brilliant…and so is the image
Thank you! Her paintings and etchings were always carefully crafted and full of life – I think she’s got the Rooks rather quarrelsome and mischievous nature spot on.
What a happy gathering of rooks in words and etching.
Yes always noisy and rarely still – they are part of our pastoral heritage – etched into the collective consciousness of rural life
This is a wonderful post! Rooks are such brilliant conversationalist!
Rooks and ‘Daws – the ‘Artful Dodgers’ of the bird world …
One of my very favourite things, to watch and hear the rooks coming back in to roost. Fantastic artwork!
Oh yes Helen – there is something calming and peaceful about them coming in to roost – that moment when they quite suddenly go quiet – a zen like moment – a time for meditation
[…] This bedtime hokku was composed by Clive Bennett. […]
Good morning to the rooks. A great late night post to celebrate our birds. I love the description and then your so elegant and apt haiku.
I don’t know which I like best – hearing the rooks waking up and going about their daily business or when they are settling down at night. Either way they are part of my childhood memories and I love to hear them.
We have a great roost of jackdaws here as there are many tall trees along the Middlewood Way, once a railway line in U.K. In Spain it is ravens flying overhead and a great roost near a castle on a hill. Childhood memories are so important in connecting with nature.
Lovely Clive, I’ve seen rooks massing before going to roost and it’s an amazing sight, but I love the way you’ve captured the subsequent quiet.
Thanks Andrea! Yes it’s very sudden and a bit eerie if you’re out near the woods when it happens. A bit like someone’s flicked a switch