Rookery Rooks Homepages : merlintherook.webs.com

Happy New Year to all you Corvid friends out there.

Well, it sure has been cold up here, hope the rest of you have been keeping warm. The snow has finally started to disappear over the past couple of days and most of the ice has gone too which means my Human has got her horses shifted at last, she was moaning that they were too difficult to get to across the road so she's stopped complaining now. Apperently there will be some new foals here in April so she'll be pretty busy in the run up to that.

Because we have been completely snowed in here for about 6 weeks I haven't been to the vet to have my wing seen to yet, I must say I'm quite relieved, it's not something I'm looking forward to, a bird is meant to have 2 wings you know! To be honest it doesn't really cause me any bother and isn't sore but She worries that it gets in my way and that I might catch it on something when I'm out of my cage so I expect She will get her way in the end and a trip to the vet is inevitable. I will certainly let her know of my annoyance by shouting in her ear when she least expects it!!!!!!

I have got some new toys to play with recently, little rubber critters and some plastic toys that I can pick up quite easily. She puts them all in a felt bag with jingly bells on it which She hangs from one of my perches and I have great fun pulling them all out of the bag and putting them in my food bowls and my water dish just to have the fun of watching her fish them all out again! Keeps me busy for hours, I even hide some of them inside some of my other toys to confuse her when she can't find them all to put them back in the bag, amusing or what! A Friend of Hers sent me a little knitted rudolph for Christmas which She has hung on the side of my cage and I have a great time pecking it and generally beating it up so on the whole I have a good time.

The Rooks are back down in the village, not many of them yet but several pairs are back in the Rookery She tells me. She saw a Raven a couple of weeks ago flying over the front field which made Her quite excited, I can't imagine why, doesn't She know that Rooks are by far the best Corvids? She has sooooooo much to learn, it's going to take me forever to get her trained!!

She has put me in her workroom today! She says it's so She and I can spend more quiet time together and learn to be better friends, we'll see about that! Why should I be friends when I've got my great big cage with heaps of room and loads of cool toys not to mention watching the dogs come and go and the telly to watch, there's always something to keep me amused. I'm quite happy thank you but She says I have to be prepared to be friends so that She can check me over regularly and trim my nails and other boring stuff, I don't see the point myself.

One advantage of being in the workroom rather than the sitting room is I won't have to put up with the cat!!!!!!!  She does spend a lot of time in her workroom, apparently she makes pictures and cards and stuff, I hope she puts some Rooks in them somewhere instead of just horses and other such non important creatures, Rooks should really be the main feature of all her art work I think but I don't know if I will be able to train her that much! Apparently other humans must quite like the stuff She makes 'cause she sells it at craft fairs.

Well folks that's it for now, take care and stay warm.

love from Magic xx

Merlin wishes to say Merry Christams and a very Happy new Year to all his friends.

GRAAKKK!!!!!

I would just like to wish all you Corvid lovers out there a Merry Christmas and enjoyable New Year, I hope you all have a lovely time!

Well, things have been a bit up and down here at the Mad House since I last chatted to you all.

One of the human chicks flew the nest which meant that life became much quieter, a big improvement from a birds point of view I can tell you!!! but he came bak for the weekend so peace was shattered. It was quite nice to see the young human again as he does sit and chat to me but it's nice to have the quiet back now that he's gone again.

I was meant to have an operation last week to have the bad bit of my wing dealt with, well, that was a drama and a half!! It took my human ages to find a vet who would do the operation, all the local ones refused but anyway we were all set to get the job done. The night before my human took all my food away, even the stuff I had stashed in my toys!!!!!! We had to get up early in the morning and She had even got me in the cat box of all things, I swear She doesn't know what I am, when the vet 'phoned to cancel, so here I am still with both my wings.

She has been spending lots of time sitting with her hands in the cage talking to me recently, I didn't care for that much to start with, hands are scary things you know but now I don't mind and I'm quite happy to sit and chatter to her. I've even got her trained now to tell me what a good and clever boy I am when I do headers with my bell.

This human is getting trained properly now, She has even got some more hedgehog food instead of that awful cat food She tried to make me eat. I'm still being quite well behaved with her until I reckon She's fully trained, I leave my cage when She wants to clean it and put myself back in when She is finished, I only yell in her ear if the cat is too close and I only throw food at Her if it's something I don't like!! I still haven't started perching on Her arm yet, well She can't have it all at once!!!

I heard the humans muttering about not having space for a Christmas tree this year, they say my cage is taking up the space where they usually put it. I must say I'm quite disappointed, I was looking forward to displacing the fairy and taking up residence at the top of the tree. I hope they remember to get me something for Christmas, I shall be very upset if they don't, I might even start yelling.

That cat has finally decided to stop staring at me, I think he finds me screaming back at him quite scary, serves him right for being so rude, you would think his mother would have told him that it's not polite to stare.

There was a big flock of carrion crows in the sycamore tree outside the front door last week, they hung about for a while then went down to the front field where they spent most of the afternoon before disappearing before dark, they've been back a couple of times since, She says we don't often get flocks of them around the house, they usually only come in ones and twos. The Rooks from the rookery in the village have all disappeared, gone for the winter, She says the trees look awfully bare without any Rooks in them, still, they will be back in the spring.

She is sitting next to my cage eating toast so I think I shall wish you all well and leave now, I don't want her forgetting to give me the crusts!!

Best wishes to all,

Lots of love,

Magic xx

This is an unidentified rook/crow thingy I saw this week at lynnsport, kings lynn.

I've seen it there before but I didnt have the camera on me,

These photo's are truly terrible, but the zoom on the camera tends to make things look blurry and I couldnt get any closer......

It looks a bit like the shape of a rook, it definitely hasnt got a sear (yet?) it has a black body and white wings!!

It's really pretty, It's definitely a crow or rook of some type because it is nothing like the shape of a magpie.

Has anyone else seen anything at all similar?

(sorry about the awful photo's, I will try and get better ones if I see it again!)

Josh

Hello all,

I thought it was time I gave you all an update on my life in the madhouse.

I've been given a HUGE new cage and loads of new toys, great fun I say!! I think my person might be a bit dim as several of these toys are definately meant for parrots not crows, still beggars can't be choosers and she seems not to understand 'rook' language very well. One of my favourite toys is one my person made which is several packets of cigarrette papers tied onto string and hung from my perch, I love to pull them out one by one and rip them up, great fun indeed, especially as I'm getting quite good at flinging them out of the cage onto the sofa, well it gives her something to do everyday!!

I'm quite annoyed with this person just now, she's been merrily giving me my favourite food for weeks, I can definately recommend dry hedgehog food which has been dampened, and I really thought I was going to be set for the winter when i heard her mention the hedgehog was asleep for the winter, more food for me I thought, no such luck, she has tried to palm me off with dry cat food instead!!! Well I've showed her who's boss, I just pick out the bits of cat food and only eat the hedgehog stuff, that will teach her!!!!

( I must add on my behalf that I can't get hedgehog food locally but have to travel 50miles to the nearest big town and unfortunately my car has died and it will another couple of weeks before I'm mobile again but Magic doesn't seem to think that's a valid reason for changing his food!!!!)

I do quite like raw mince, bread and bananas too but she won't give them too me all the time, appartently her hubby also likes mince so i have to share with him!

My wing is a bit of a nuisance as it hangs down and is a bit itchy but when it bothers me my person gives me Reiki which I really quite like and my wing feels better, she says that when the car is fixed she will have to take me to the vet and see if it needs to be dealt with, I don't like the sound of that!! Still, she's trying hard I suppose and she did take me in. i feel much better now and my feathers have got their lovely colours back, my person says that the top of my head is a lovely blue colour, my back is sort of lilac/purple and my tail feathers are green, maybe that's why she thinks I'm a parrot!!! She says I look much better now that I've put on some weight, she said she could see my breast bone sticking through my chest feathers when she first found me, now I have a lovely round, plump chest, no bones poking through.

The house seems a bit quieter recently, I've noticed my perons youngest 'chick' is not around just now so I expect he has flown the nest, he was very noisy and never seemed to sit still which I didn't care for much and he always watched really noisy things on the telly with loud music on, not suitable for a refined chap like me.

Well I must go and keep an eye on that cat just to be certain he isn't up to no good, you can never be too careful with cats!!

Take care all,

Magic x

We spotted the Poet the other day!

We're pretty definite it was him, some jackdaws and rooks were visiting the rookery and mum saw a little jackdaw trying to get near the house to say hello, merlin was chasing him off, but he was so persistent we are sure it was him.

This is good to know that he wants to visit us and that he seems to be OK, hope he has better luck next time he comes back!!!

Josh

Hi, just thought I'd let you know how my first week living with humans has been.

What a culture shock!!!!!! Humans are noisy, busy creatures, they never seem to stop flapping about!!

Living here was quite stressful and scary at first but it's not so bad now that I'm getting used to it. My human has put some flower remedies in my water dish and they really seem to help.

I have a nice place in the house where I can look out the window and watch for that cat coming, why would anyone want to keep a cat? They really seem to like him but I can't see why, don't humans know cats are dangerous? I don't mind the dogs so much, in fact I quite like watching the daft things they do, like stealing each others food and all trying to get on the sofa at once. The little dogs seem quite friendly but the big dog is a wimp!!! He's scared of little me!!! So he should be because I've got a nice sharp beak and he hasn't.

I had a rather embarrassing incident the other day, I had an itch on my head and when I tried to scratch it but because of my wonky wing  I fell backwards off my perch and landed on my back on the floor of my cage, my human did try hard not to laugh at me but it was still embarrassing, at least that cat wasn't there to see it!

I heard the humans talking this morning about getting me a bigger cage next week and some toys, I can't wait to see what they get me. She, the one who feeds me and cleans out my mess put an extra perch in for me yesterday so now I can stretch out both my wings all the way, that gets all the kinks out but a bigger cage would be great.

She reckons I'm going to have be a house bird now 'cause it doesn't look like me wing is going to work properly again. Maybe if I'd been able to find her when I first injured it It might have been fixable but the injury is too old to fix now, never mind I can still flap it at her when I don't want to be handled and I've got the hang of scratching those itches without falling off the perch again!!

Most go now and see if She has brought me something tasty for my lunch.

see you all again soon,

Magic

Our dear little Jackdaw has left us, we believe to become a wild bird.

He has always been an independant little bird spending most of his time outdoors, and only interacting with one human being.

He tried hard to be friends with Merlin to no avail!

In the last few weeks, rooks have been visiting the poplar trees more often, sometimes with jackdaws as well.

One day, a wild jackdaw flew over from the Rookery and flew around the garden with Merlin & Poet.

After this, Poet took to spending more and more time in the poplar trees rather than hanging round the house, and last Monday he didn't come in for supper and hasn't been seen since.

I think he must have gone to the mass roost with other jackdaws, as I know they were around that day. We hope he'll come and visit to let us know he's okay.

Jo

I hope we see him again soon,:( he has always been very good at catching food and very cautious with birds until he is really sure, so I think he'll be ok.

Josh

Magic seems to be settling in well. He is presently living in a large dog cage which is in front of the living room window. I didn't want to leave him out in the caravan where he was at first as it is getting very cold up here in the far north.

He is eating well, in fact I'm astonished at just how much he can gobble down!! He seems to love dry hedgehog food which I dampen first, tinned cat food, tuna, and some of the things from a bag of parrot food which was all I could get at short notice!

Is there anything which I should definately NOT feed him?

He drinks well and I am putting antibiotics in his water due to his wing injury but as the injury wasn't fresh when I found him a week ago, I feel the risk of infection now is low. I didn't take him to the vet initially as I really felt he would die if not that night then from shock at being transported and handled but looking at the injury I think it is too old to treat successfully now.

He seems to enjoy his Reiki healing which I do from a distance, it seems to calm him.

He seems healthy now apart from the wing, when he wakes up he has a big stretch, some food and water and then a quick preen, which seems to me to be normal healthy behaviour? It certainly is with most other animals.

He is much more relaxed and although won't take food from my hand yet is quite happy to hop onto the floor of his cage and eat/drink or just generally watch this mad human whereas just a couple of days ago I had to move right away from the cage before he would eat.

 He isn't at all bothered by the dogs but does make a racket when he sees the cat out the window. He's pretty quiet most of the time apart from quiet clicks and chatters.

If anyone has any advice that might help me make life as pleasant as possible for Magic it would be gratefully recieved!!

I'm sure Magic will have something to say for himself soon!