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Rooks go shooting |
27.9.2003 |
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Ó
Michael Woods |
While out in garden this afternoon, I
was treated to a display of 'shooting' by the rooks that
live in the woods behind the house. Alerted by a babble of
cawing, and jacking from the jackdaws mixed with them, I
looked up to see the flock flying over – an untidy, loose
swarm of black winged silhouettes against the towering white
cumulus clouds. The rooks had evidently found a thermal, a
whorl of air rising from the sun warmed ground, because they
were circling on outstretched wings and gaining height,
while drifting slowly downwind.
The birds were mostly flying in pairs
and, every now and then, a pair would suddenly dive headlong
and cascade, twisting this way and that, dropping and
checking with a flick of the wings, until they reached the
tops of the trees. There was an audible swish of wings as
they hurtled headlong.
This is the 'shooting'. It can be seen
when the rooks are flying at low level to the stubble fields
on the other side of the garden but it is most spectacular
when they have a thermal to play in. The display is
particularly common in September and October when there is a
resurgence of courtship and even nest-building in the
rookery. It is presumably part of the pairing ritual,
perhaps to reassert bonds that weakened during the recess
after the breeding season. To the human viewer there seems
to be a lightheartedness about the rooks' aerobatics and
Julian Huxley, a pioneer of the study of animal behaviour,
was convinced that the rooks were enjoying themselves.
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