"There are few more pleasant sounds in the countryside than the cawing of Rooks in a group of tall trees when everything around is still. There is a rookery some 200m from my house, and I often wander to the bottom of the garden when an outburst of cawing tells me that there is something to watch. In late winter and in the first days of spring, before the leaves are on the trees, I can watch the preparations for nesting."