Rookery Rooks Homepages : merlintherook.webs.com

Hi All, Magic here. Sorry I haven't been in touch recently but I've been quite busy since Christmas. Hope all you corvid friends out there are well and happy.

Well the first thing that happened after christmas was that I got evicted from the sitting room!!!!!!!!!!!!

As you can imagine I was not best pleased to start with, Firstly that big scary human caught me and put me in a really small cage and carted me off to her craftroom, She knows how much I hated being caught but She still did it, She's really quite bossy you know!!!!

I spent 5 or 6 weeks on my own in the craft room but it wasn't so bad in the end, I really quite enjoyed it. The only human I saw was Her, She spent a lot of time in there with me. At first She completely ignored me except to feed me and clean out my cage but after a week She would leave the cage door open when She was working at her desk, it always looked like fun, lots of paper and shiny things but She didn't let me have a go. Then She took to leaving the cage open all day even when She wasn't in the room with me so I got to go exploring, She was very carefully to always make sure the door was locked so that darned cat never got in.

I really can't understand why She insists on keeping such an animal! It obviously doesn't do it's job properly because I had to share the craftroom with some mice who kept pinching my food!!!!!

After being there for a while She got a bit mean and stopped leaving my food out all day for me and started to take it away when She wasn't in the room so that if I wanted something to eat I had to take it from Her hand but you know what? It wasn't nearly as scary as I first thought, She is really not so bad after all. She always puts a nice dark glove on when She is feeding me or cleaning out my cage or just having a chat so that I don't have to see the really scary hand, I hate hands!!!!!!!! I really like perching on the glove now, I get a great view from there and She usually gives me a nice treat when I do, a piece of cheese or a bit of party ring biscuit, they're my absolute favourite, I would do just about anything for one of those!

Now I am back in my big cage in the sitting room I'm pleased to say (apart from having to see the cat) and I'm a much happier and calmer bird now, I have even decided to make a bit more noise now and chatter away to myself, She says it sounds like I'm being throttled but I think She sounds wierd too. I like my big cage better now and spend my time between the floor picking up the toys I drop (deliberately) and the perches, I also have a nice platform that I like to stand on (She says it's a cat scratching post) and watch the world from. She puts my food dish on the floor now so I love to scatter as much as I can all over the floor just so I can watch Her tidy it up!!

I can hear that the outside crows are back, She tells me that the hooded crows are back in the fields making a racket and squabbling amonst themselves and She also says that the Rooks are back in force in the village making their nests now that spring is here. Spring?????? I don't think so! There is still a lot of snow outside here and it's still pretty cold, apparently She and her hubby had to dig out some of Her ponies last week because the snow had drifted so high round them that they were stuck! Makes me glad I get to live inside, She still mutters about building me an outdoor aviary for the summer but I think I'm quite comfortable where I am thank you.

There has been no more word about my damaged wing being removed, thank goodness, I really don't fancy that, I'm actually using it a lot more now and it's not as stiff as it was but I still don't think it will ever let me fly, still, I'd rather have it as it is than have it removed. My tail feathers are a bit of a mess just now but She says they will look a lot better after I've moulted, my other feathers are all nice and shiny except on the damaged bit of my wing, the feathers only grow a little bit there and then they fall out again, still that means fewer feathers to clean everyday! She is a bit confused, She says I should have lost most of my face feathers by now and I haven't really lost any, She reckons I may be the runt of my clutch as I'm still not as big as the other Rooks and it's probably better in the long run that I have come to live with Her as I may have got picked on by the other Rooks.

Well I think that's all the news I have for now, I'll write again soon with a spring update, apparently the hedgehog should be waking up soon She says so I'll have to share the food again, we'll see about that!

Take care everyone, best wishes from Magic. xx