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Going back to my earliest
notebooks, I have always kept a record of rookeries. Up to the end of 2012, I
had recorded 96 rookeries in Bedfordshire since moving to the county in 2002.
Most had been recorded on journeys around the county by car, so most are
visible from a road. I have rarely visited the south-west or north of the
county so had few rookeries from those areas. The national survey in 1975 found
201 rookeries in Bedfordshire (Trodd & Kramer 1991) while in fieldwork for
the latest atlas (2007-2011) Rooks were confirmed breeding in 179 tetrads,
meaning a minimum of 179 rookeries in the county. Several tetrads hold more
than one rookery, e.g. TL04B, Stewartby Lake (North) and TL03G, Apsley End
Shillington.
Prompted by an email on
HOSList, the Hampshire equivalent of the BedsBirds email group, I created a
google.maps map, plotting the approximate position of all Bedfordshire rookeries
that were known to me, including those no longer in use. I included the
following extra pieces of information: Ordnance Survey six-figure map
reference, year first recorded, tree species, in which nests were built, and
2013 nest count.
Many rookeries occupy
traditional sites, but for most Bedfordshire rookeries the year first recorded
is since 2002 (the year I moved to the county) although many have, undoubtedly,
been existence longer than that, e.g. a rookery at Reynold (for which I do not
have a map reference, so it is not, yet, included on the google.map ) has been occupied
for at least 40 years (Bedfordshire Bird Report 2007).
In 1975 48% of rookeries
in Bedfordshire were in Elm trees but following the loss of these trees to
Dutch Elm Disease rooks nested predominantly in oak, ash, sycamore, beech and
horse chestnut (Trodd and Kramer 1991). Given the variety of diseases that seem
to be afflicting various trees e.g. acute oak decline disease, poplar scab and ash
tree die back, it seemed an opportune time to determine which trees are used by
Rooks for their rookeries. However, I have found it more difficult to identify
trees in their ‘winter plumage’ than I had anticipated and so will try and re-visit
at least some of the rookeries once the trees are in leaf.
I published the google.map
via the BedsBirds email group and subsequently, with the help of other
BedsBirders have added another 30 or so rookeries. As of 09/04/2013, the
locations of 128 rookeries have been mapped. Counts for all bar 11 of these
have been received for this year, giving a total, so far, of 2899 nests. Seven rookeries used in
previous years seem to be unused this year. Rookeries have been recorded in 99
tetrads suggesting there are at least 80 rookeries so far unmapped. A copy of
the map, as of 09/04/2013, is shown. The red pins are rookeries no longer in
use. The up-to-date version can be
viewed at:
Bedfordshire Bird Reports
since 1995 mention a further 28 rookeries for which I do not have an exact
location, some of which may be duplicates
for known rookeries.
If you would like to help
identifying the location of the above rookeries, supplying details of new
rookeries or adding extra details to rookeries on the map, please email me or
BedsBirds.
Thanks
to Dave Anderson, Bob Hook, Judith Knight, Dave Kramer, Darren Oakley-Martin
for already supplying additional information and special thanks to Jenny Hicks
for joining me on rookery patrols.
First published in The Hobby 127: 9 - 11
