Yet another book on obsession in the grand nature mania tradition, this time the focus is on one of the UK's humblest and most commonplace of denizens. The title is somewhat misleading, as this study is mainly concerned with rooks and jackdaws, not carrion crows. Since all fall under the umbrella classification anyway, it's not a major issue, but something to be aware of if one's specifically after Corvus corone. I was pleased to have an ongoing and embarrassing thorn in my side removed with some light shed on how to differentiate crows from rooks. Identification from a distance, or whilst the birds are in flight, has often been problematic for me. Cocker attempts to blend the emotional, personal side of nature writing with the scientific, the results of which are not always successful. One part I did enjoy was the section on Britain's historical avifauna; it was interesting to learn that parts of Norfolk once teemed with populations of heron, cormorant and spoonbill. The land they lived on was also very different, consisting of larger marsh areas ripe for wetland species - our current diversity seems rather barren in comparison.
Cocker's primary focus is on rook roosting habits, he attempts to establish exactly why communal roosting occurs and where the largest concentrations are. By the middle of the book I was starting to get bored of rooks, not so much with the species itself, but with the tedious technical data. Counting crows, to coin a new phrase, occupies too many pages. I would have preferred a more detailed examination on the perceived high intellect of corvids, or perhaps more on the fascinating phenomenon of 'crow parliaments', where individuals are seemingly 'sentenced' and 'executed'. Irritatingly, Cocker dismisses these eyewitness accounts as mere myth. His writing style is mostly soothing and pleasant, although I did notice an over-abundance of sexual imagery scattered throughout, fields described as 'breast-soft' being one such example. The penultimate chapter is Cocker's justification for his obsession where he peevishly complains about the the modern tendency to mock those engaged with a special interest or passion. I couldn't help but think most people stop caring about the contempt of others by the time they reach his age. A soothing read, but too much floating data impairs what could have been a more intimate study of landscape.
Rating: 2/5
1 comment:
Yes I agree, it is a freedom that often comes with maturity that one no longer worries so much about how one is perceived by others - most of the time! An interesting review.
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