Batty bird entertainers
SITTING here at my dinner table/home office desk I am constantly distracted by the noisy, batty, lively gang of starlings that hang out in and around our garden.
I know I often return to starlings because they are great entertainers in both summer and winter, but they are wonderful to watch during the day.
In winter they fly around in their tens of thousands, in huge murmurations, that swish and swoop and end up in a couple of trees – safety and warmth in numbers.
How can the crazy creatures, that are squawking and shrieking on my bird table and feeders, be the same as those elegant aeronauts that delight us at dusk on cold winter days?
There is no grace today – one young bird, with brown feathers to show his youth and spotty chest to prove he is heading for adulthood, is dominating the feeder.
Every time a hungry rival arrives there is mayhem and a mid-air battle ensues until one of them flies off.
Older birds seem to lose out to the hungry youths but unless you slow things down a bit you don’t see the half of it.
There is definitely a bit of swapping places, which you may not notice.
The resident bird on the feeder seems to have had enough food for a bit and lets a rival flap in for some tasty seed-filled fat.
The noise they make brings the word squabble to life, with wings flapping and face-to-face scraps just asking for a good camera. All this action agitates my dog no end.
The biggest set-to occurs when I put food out first thing and then a squabbling mass of about 30-40 starlings descends on the table and devours the food, leaving our local blackbirds looking on enviously.
The starlings don’t get their own way all the time.
Ten minutes ago, there was a woodpigeon sitting in the middle of the bird table pecking out at the starlings to warn them off. They look absolutely shocked that someone would nick their pantry.
Starlings are birds of woods and fields but are regular visitors to gardens.
Numbers have plummeted in the countryside over the past 50 years, which will surprise people who have watched the murmurations. Yet those get-togethers were even bigger in previous years.
Starlings are truly a beautiful bird, an oily black colour, with a purple and green sheen.
In the winter, they are covered in tiny beige spots.
Young starlings are dark grey-brown, but they change as their bodies take on more spots and that sheen starts to appear.
It is great to see them growing up.
Throughout the lockdown we have all looked out of our windows for cheery views, well the starlings are certainly making me smile and they have done for months.
My bird table will continue to offer a little help as we get nearer to winter.
But I know that my reward will arrive with a flutter and squawk every day.