Over the winter we've hardly seen a rook in the garden, though we could hear them in the large rookery they've built high in the pines on the north side of the village. Then, as spring came along, they began to appear at our bird bath - which was fine by me as no animal should be refused water. However, things began to get a bit out-of-control when....
....the first rook invited his friends over to play a game - "Who Can Get The Coconut" - the coconut being a half shell filled with highly-nutritious fat hung in a tree for the small birds, particularly the tit family.
Several times, in their efforts to reach it, the rooks knocked it down, and I put it up again, employing more and more devious ways of preventing them reaching it - but they kept trying, and I kept thinking I'd won.
I hadn't, of course. In the end one of them got to it and succeeded in detaching it so it fell to the ground, unfortunately when I wasn't around. By the time I rescued it, it was empty.
Watching them made me appreciate what intelligent birds they are, and how persistent they can be. I had to admire them - but that doesn't mean I have to like them.
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