Rooks

Winter in Vienna is normally grey and freezing, but its pretty good if you like birds. In around mid October large flocks of rooks arrive from Russia, to overwinter in the (warmer!) climate. I find this interesting because in the UK rooks are to be seen in large numbers all year round. We live near the lake Alte Donau, an old arm of the river Danube, and the winter flocks of rooks in this area are sometimes really spectacularly large. The rooks spend much of the day foraging on the fields of the market gardens and around the parks, until about an hour before dusk. Then all the flocks head to Donaupark on the other side of the lake where they roost. Annoyingly, they seem to congregate just above a kiddy play park, where I don't really want to be found with a long lens camera and a large dog. However, whenever I get the chance I've been watching and photographing them, and I've done a few sketches.

The weather is very cold now and the rooks have been really noisy and active the last couple of days. This watercolour sketch is extremely simple, but I like its spontaneity, and it captures the fact that in this freezing weather, the rooks just appear as silhouettes against the white sky.