Getting back in the black

Once an excuse for a jolly get-together, May-time rook shooting is now a conservation necessity to protect both rare birds and tender crops

- RICHARD NEGUS

I remember my first mouthful of rook pie. It was also my last. The Quorn Hunt held an annual rook supper in May. Puppy walkers, earth-stoppers — this was before the Hunting Act — and farmers were thanked for their support by way of invitation to the shindig. Beer flowed, hunting songs were sung and the pub walls shook with cheers as the golden-crusted pie was brought proudly to the table.

I found the rook filling too gamey, with an overwhelming hint of soil to the aftertaste. But the pastry was excellent and the pub’s collie, less fussy than me, gratefully accepted my under-the-table meaty offerings.

May is the traditional time to control rooks. The youngsters, known as ‘branchers’, leave the nest to flex and test their near-flightless wings. They sway in the uppermost boughs of the rookery, raucously calling to their parents when they return with food. This dependent stage lasts for a handful of days, after which the juveniles are expected to fend for themselves. It is only at this brancher stage when rooks are considered as palatable pie ingredients — by some. As a result, May became the time to thin out the youngsters from rookeries that prospered on nearly every farm, for both culinary and pest control purposes.

The last rook supper I attended was many years ago and since then rooks and rookeries have changed. Rookeries recorded by the Suffolk Biodiversity Information Service in 1975 compared with those in 202021 adds weight to my observation (suffolkbis.org.uk/node/943). Rooks once nested in widespread but small communities. Today they have concentrated their nesting habits, living en masse in closer proximity to roads and villages.