I've been having a nice relaxing day in the garden in summer temperatures. There were a couple of starlings in the bush next to my bird feeder. They were making calls I hadn't heard before, and I thought they might be mating calls - but which was which? Then one jumped briefly on to the other (VERY briefly, typical male) and I knew.Suddenly there was s lot of flapping and I thought I saw a pigeon deep in the bush. The starlings panicked. They knew better than me - it was a magpie, and it was obviously trying to hunt starlings. I stood up, clapped and shouted, expecting all three birds to fly away, but only the magpie left, the starlings appeared to be less scared of me than of the magpie.
A little later a starling (I don't know if it was one of the original pair) flew off the bush towards the fence - and collided with it! It didn't appear to be injured (maybe its pride) and it just wheeled round and flew away in the opposite direction. 
4 comments:
I chuckled at the bird who flew into the fence though....he probably said, in bird-speak, "I meant to do that..."
I know, it's cruel to mock, but really...
Considering they are building on every square inch in my village, we have blue tits (and it's not even cold - sorry, couldn't resist!), blackbirds, thrushes, sparrows and of course, enormous flocks of starlings.
I can't imagine the sparrows disappearing. I have a gazillion at my backyard feeders. That would alarm me.
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