Time of the rook. Soon it will be time for managing the young rooks.
In latin: Corvus Frugilegus
Despite being on EU red list for endangered species we do have very high numbers in Denmark.
And areas where the population are too high they are considered a pest. Hunters in Danmark gets special permits issued by government to reduce numbers.
Rooks can do a lot of damage to crops, and can be a general nuisance due to their very loud presence.
Rooks are interesting and clever birds that deserves a place in the eco system like any other native species. So the idea is not to get rid of all birds, but only reduce numbers or at least try to reach a status quo of the colony.
Rooks nests in colonies. And on my hunting grounds there is roughly between 2-300 nests. Each nests produces around 2-4 new rooks each year.
It means i have to shoot around 500 young rooks this year.
I’s gonna be very hard to reach that number. We need to shoot every day from middle of may and as long as we can se the birds on the branches.
At the end of may, leafs and foliage tends to cover everything up, and makes things harder and finally puts and end to things.
When we reach middle of june all birds a flying, and the annual rook shootout is over for this year.
How rook shooting works in short.
When the young rooks are big enough to jump out of the nest – usually located in the very top of tall hardwood trees but still not able to fly, they are pretty easy targets. That is if wind doesen’t puts too much swing into the tree tops. We use kal. 22 or sometimes heavy air guns.
To be effective in short time i will have friends to come and help me out.
Kids and dogs are essential and important helpers on the picking up.
All birds are being picked up!
Even though the young rooks are considered a pest they taste good. And all birds ar being consumed in different ways. But more on that matter in later posts.
Stay tuned on the rookshootout! More to come.
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