Old Broken-Beak is back

In my local park, a short walk from my house in South Devon, is a rookery. Rooks are highly social birds and nest in noisy groups. Here’s one Rook in early morning sunshine next to its nest.

At this time of year the nests are quite visible because leaf cover is lower. They jump between branches in the canopy:

They take flight and do sweeping flypasts, calling and occasionally jostling and chasing one another:

The chase is on:

They are fascinating to watch in the early morning. I’m missing seeing them at the moment as there’s a police helicopter hovering over the park and people are staying indoors.

One of the characters there is Old Broken-Beak, a Rook with a malformed beak. As with many birds with beak deformities it seems to be able to function well.

I wish it good luck.

As I walked down to the Quay, two Rooks sat on a nearby terrace, their attention held by activity in the sky.

I’m looking forward to being back there with them soon.