The Song of the Community

This week is the middle of three focusing on our ethnographies of digital culture and I was seeking a representation for me of community.

As the year turns, and the mornings are darker, my arrival in work coincides with the gathering of the rooks before they disperse for the day. It took a few days before my arrival at the carpark at Easter Bush and the weather gave me the opportunity to take this image, but I'm glad I persevered. My camera isn't an amazing piece of kit, but I love the activity captured in this shot, and the pre-dawn blue-grey hazy colour.

I was intending to base this reflection on the social behaviour of corvids and the similarity and recognition we find with our own behaviour.

But again and again I came back to this piece by Mark Cocker, in the incredible Crow Country. He was speaking about the rookery "babble" when he arrived home, and at this time of year, it marks the beginning and ending of my working day, and weaves the same magic on me.

"I am entered by those sounds in the darkness and I cannot tell you how good it feels. The mental detritus of the city is sluiced away instantly and I am reconnected with the place and my true self." (Crow Country, 2008; p82)