Country and Coast: The dark sentinels of the graveyard who sit in judgment

AN appropriate denizen of churchyard or cemetery, a dark sentinel of nature but with human attributes. High on the bleak hillside cemetery of Crookes in Sheffield we gathered to bid farewell to a very dear friend. As the coffin was lowered and the priest spoke the last rites, the rooks gathered around, etched black against the stark white snow, they observed in silence.

Always closely associated with people and human habitations, feeding on arable and pasture, rooks nest almost exclusively in tall trees in farming landscapes. People often confuse carrion crows and rooks and this is not new. It has happened through the centuries with terms like "as the crow flies" referring not to carrion crows but to flocks of rooks flying nosily and directly to winter roosts or summertime rookeries from their feeding sites many miles away.

This habitual behaviour of large, often spectacular flocks was observed by country dwellers and gave rise to the phrase. It is suggested that you should: "Welcome rooks who nest in trees near your home – they are said to bring good luck; but beware if they desert their rookery, for then bad luck may befall."

Shakespeare's Macbeth, in his tormented and confused mind, notes "the crow makes wing to the rooky wood"; interpreted as good luck if a rook going to the rookery, but bad luck if a carrion crow, an omen of ill-fortune and misery as daytime slips into evening and "night's black agents come forth".

Rooks were important for good or bad fortunes of families and estates, so you kept them informed of happenings, especially deaths. This was important to ensure the rooks stayed and didn't leave the rookery because of the death. If they left, then further bad luck followed; so someone was sent to the rookery to tell the news.

With their gregarious and communal behaviour rooks have traditionally been given human attributes – "rook parliaments" and "rook juries" where they gather and pass judgment on their fellows.

They help to predict the weather – according to old beliefs they sit in rows on walls or fences when rain is expected. A Yorkshire version was that if rooks congregated on dead tree branches rain would come before nightfall; if on live branches then it would be fine and dry.

Fingers crossed for this last one: "When in the trees the rooks build high, expect the summer to be warm and dry".

Dr Ian D. Rotherham directs the Geography, Tourism and Environment Research Unit at Sheffield Hallam University ianonthewildside @ukeconet.co.uk