Williamson's Weekly Nature Notes

ROOK pie was a country delicacy in my youth. Guns would assemble under the rookeries in early May, bagging the youngsters as they began to find their feet in the branches or as they flew with difficulty around the treetops.

By The Newsroom

Published 28th Apr 2009, 14:48 BST

Updated 8th Jun 2018, 04:05 BST

In the same way, squab pie helped eke out the cottagers' rations during meat rationing after the war. Squabs were young wood pigeons and these could fairly easily be caught when they were pushed out of their nests by using long poles.

Today it is doubtful if rook shooting for food exists anywhere in the country. Rook shoots are a thing of the past.

Much more likely is that rooks are killed in larsen and other cage traps where they raid the pheasant pens. The dead birds would nowadays be buried or scavenged by kites and even buzzards.

The Sussex rook, once upon a time "farm labourer" because its daily existence depended on working the fields, much like humans, is now not nearly so common, despite the demise of rook pie.

For full feature see West Sussex Gazette April 29