My rooks

The clumps high in this tree are rook nests that I was, ride or drive under on the edge of Stirling's King's Park nearly every working day on my way to and from the office. Every year, there are seven nests in this colony, all in the one tree. In winter 2011/12, the two severe storms with hurricane-force winds that hit Stirling, and southern Scotland more generally, and brought down many large trees in this town, also destroyed all of the nests in this tree, and in another rookery elsewhere on the King's Park. The birds rebuilt both colonies over several weeks, a process on which I kept careful notes, with a view to a possible future larger scale study of rookeries in the Stirling council area. I love the crow family, and rooks specifically. Such clever and classy looking birds. And these are my lovely 'Groundhog Day' rooks.