It was dusk in Tubney Woods, deep in rural Oxfordshire. The birds were singing at the end of another perfect day. The woman living at the edge of the forest could stand it no longer. She phoned the local noise pollution officer.

'It's the rooks.' she said. 'I can't bear that awful cawing noise. Can you do something about it? '

The call was no surprise to officials at the Vale of White Horse District Council.
They have heard every kind of complaint. The countryside, as every country-dweller knows, can be a hellishly noisy place.

Last week David Stead, a West Yorkshire farmer, appeared in court in Wakefield accused of allowing his cocks to break noise regulations by crowing at dawn, waking a neighbour. Mr Stead said they were only doing what comes naturally. Six months ago Corky, a four-year-old cock, was banned from crowing after complaints in the Devon village of Stoke.

Complaints about noise --reasonable or not-- are at record levels in country areas. Environmental health officers say this is partly because of an increase in noisy activity. However, a significant number of complaints come from newcomers to the countryside.

There are many sources of rural noise. Farm machinery is a common cause. Mechanised grain driers, usually switched on for three weeks in September, can produce a maddening low-frequency hum. Mike Roberts, chief environmental health officer at Vale of White Horse, said noise often sounded worse in the countryside than in cities. With less background sound, unwelcome noises can seem louder and travel further.

The oddest complaints, however, are the ones council officials can do nothing about. Vale of White Horse officials have been asked to silence not only nesting rooks: pigeons and pheasants have also caused concern. In Kent, council officials have been asked to silence baby lambs. One man rang to say he was kept awake by the splashing of a fountain in the garden next door. Another insisted he could hear an alien spaceship landing over the garden fence.

'We get regular complaints. They usually come from retired people who have just moved into the country. We send them a polite letter'.

And the lady who complained about the rooks? She was politely told she would have to put up with it. ' We asked her what we were supposed to do: shoot the birds, or chop the trees down?', said Mr. Roberts. 'In the accepted there was nothing much she could do - except move out.'

It is not recorded who won: the lady or the rooks.