Rookery Rooks Homepages : merlintherook.webs.com

Merlin has now left us after living with us for two years; we think he might have gone to mate but we are very unsure. If we never see him again it will be very sad to have lost such a lovely and beautiful rook and we will remeber him fondly and always miss his irritating habits.

When I started this site I put this song on here in a spirit of optimism as he was something very new that had come into our lives, sadly it turns out to be very appropriate if we have lost him too, Jo is still looking on the bright side but I'm not so sure we will see him again. If we dont, we will all miss him very much. P.S. Jo thinks I'm being very negative thinking we wont see him again, I'm just saying I think thats it's quite likely that he wont be able to feed himself or sleep outside in the cold.

Josh

This Is a goodbye poem for Merlin from The Hag which she wrote for Esme but it's now for Merlin too.

Death Smiles on me. 
　
I enter the Darkness that surround my soul, The deep dark centre around my being.
Shedding the imposed ideas of self, Like black feathers from the corvid body.

To die the death of, old, what once was me.

No longer to be, what I may have once perceived.
 
The raw Caw as I free the chains that bind me to, A world that has no sense.
To free, into wild flight. For tomorrow I no longer see.
 
The cage of my making once so strong, Now melts like the dying sun.
As the shadows fly into a community of nature own making.
 
A state of moment, surrounded by infinity.

He is perfectly capable of feeding himself, and if he was cold, he knows where we are.  The call of the wild is a very strong instinct, and now that he's ready to mate he could no longer ignore it. From all the research I've been doing recently, I have discovered that a supposedly "imprinted" bird has just as much chance in the wild as any other, so fly free my wondrous one, we shall miss you forever but you don't need us now. Jo

Don't give up on seeing Merlin again.

Last year I hand reared a nestling rook, who I named Zebedee.  I never intended keeping him as a "pet", and released him last September to join our wild flock.  Daily, he returned for feeding, sometimes several times a day, until one day in December he disappeared.  I was so worried that something terrible had happened to him, especially as the weather was so bad at that time.

In February though, he came back, no longer tame or willing to take food from me.  Since then I have seen him in or above the garden several times a week.

As well as several other corvids, I also have a free-flying jackdaw by the name of Izzy (short for Izzy Behaving Himself?).  He lives indoors, but has the opportunity for free-flight in all but the worst of weathers if he wants it.   If he leaves the garden, he tends to go foraging in the fields with the local flock.

Occasionally, the wild flock don't come back to their usual roost, and I think that Izzy finds himself lost and has to stick with them then until they return to familiar territory.  I'm pretty sure that is what also happened to Zebedee as the village became rookless at the time he disappeared.  Hopefully, the same is true of Merlin too.  If he can forage for himself, he should manage just fine.  The not knowing is hard though.

M

I'm feeling a bit more re-assured now that he's OK,

after hearing about M's rooks which have returned and looking into imprintment versus hormones a bit - and the fact we have a very easily observable "maybe merlin" nest just outside the backdoor;

I think he might have gone back to nature and may be having a whale of a time being a rook!

This is the original theme tune for merlins homepage which you can also find in links under "Rookery Music"

It's a wrap!

Josh