Rooks

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 Telling the corvids apart can be tricky unless you have good light and are close up. I have already dealt with the Jackdaw, and I thought I would have a go at Rooks.

Rooks nest communally in rookeries. Usually these are in trees at the edge of a wood. The two local rookeries to us both overhang country lanes and are relatively easy to see. The following video is of a rookery at Newbiggin on Lune, a 8 km walk from here. I took this yesterday and I was able to see birds still bringing in nesting material. Make sure that you have the sound turned up as it is the noise that gives away the presence of a rookery.


The defining feature for a rook is the pale beak and face but in poor light this can be hard to make out.



Carrion Crow can easily be confused with rooks but have a black beak and less of a crowned head.
I think these birds caught in my camera trap are carrion crow. Things get harder as sometimes a flock will have crows, rook and jackdaw together, and if there are immature birds present it is even more confusing.

The following video by the British Trust for Ornithology covers the topic well.

BTO Video

The old maxim that if there are a lot of birds they will be rooks but single birds will be crows is unreliable as a method of ID but has an element of truth to it!

Diary Notes.
We had another visit from our female sparrowhawk today. We saw her make a couple of unsuccessful strikes and one successful. She stayed around the garden for a couple of hours, at one stage she hid underneath the garden barbecue until the birds came back to the feeders. Overnight cameras revealed one badger and a lot of rabbits. I keep disturbing a pair of mallards on our pond - perhaps they are thinking of nesting there? Overnight temperatures are only just above freezing and during the day it is about 8 C and overcast.








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