LEAVE YOUNG BIRDS BE!!


Please, do not hamper a young bird's life by picking it up, and taking it home with you. It is calling its parents to help them in locating it.
After fledgling from the nest, the parent birds will keep feeding it, and look out for it, until it will be able to look after itself.
And the reason you cannot see a parent is because of your own proxomity to the young bird. And while you are ebating if or not you should take the bird home, you keep the parent from giving it well needed nutrition in the form of a meal!


Photos

The photos on this blog are all taken by me. If there is any picture you might want to use for any other than personal use, please drop me a line to the email address shown in the sidebar on the right.

Sunday, September 20, 2009

Starling mania, part one

Thursday evening, I passed some Swallows, who were sitting overhead on the telephone wires. Despite being late for meeting Michelle of Rehabcare at the pier for a picture, I could not help myself and stopped for a few pictures, before moving on to the pier.

Barn Swallows, Hirundo rustica.


At the other end of the wires, across the field, I spotted some Starlings, flying off and on the wire.
4pm



Down at the pier a small fishing boat was just returning from a trip out in the bay. Behind and above the boat, Gulls were eager to be nearby; just in case a meal, or just a snack would drop from the boat.

And as I turned around, and made another Gull shot, I suddenly realised that light was fading fast. It had been overcast all day, with a few Sunny spells promised. I was still waiting for these!

And here we had a sudden peep by the creator of Life on Earth; the Sun, herself.



Michelle, Christine and I moved to the setting at the Church of Ireland, to get a few more pictures of this writer, and as I looked back, I was surprised to see the Sun set already.




,
On my return home, taking the same road, as before, I spotted that a few more Starlings had arrived by now:

As I shot these (and a suitcase more!) I realised that I was looking at a Starling roosting site. And as I sat observing the birds take off and return to their spot on the wire again, I set my mode dial on movie clips. I knew this roost, even though still very small, compared to the millions at some roost site, would do its dance at one point. The birds did their bit, but I messed them up! So I'll return next week some time, at a later time, to see how many how large (approx) this roost is.
I now recall that I had seen, from my kitchen window, something like a black-ish shape moving, in 2006/7 which I thought to be at the end of the back road. I had then assumed it was the Corvids at the bay. It is more likely it was Starlings. But I had no idea the village, and the valleys stored this many Starlings. They greet me early in the morning with their funny high-pitched calls. They will sit high in the Hawthorn, right at the other side of my garden wall, and yet never call to come and feed here.
Also, I often see them at the other side of the estate, where I often see them in one of the trees there, where they always seem to fight! (not at my end!) At the bay I often see them too.

Starling,,Stumus vulgaris.
Gathering together before going down into the scrub of the fields to settle for and spend the night.

6 comments:

  1. I'm pleased I don't have that many Starlings here. There is a very large old Leylandii at the bottom of my garden. One day I watched as two groups left it each of about two dozen birds. Their constant chatter while in the tree was quite loud to say the least.

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  2. They never are in my garden, strangely enough, despite using the Hawthorn as a cafe.

    I presume they feed in the gardens at the other side of the school, where I saw them.
    It will be nice to see if we get any migrants, later this year.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Wow, what a lot of Starlings. Wonderful shots.

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  4. This from IOWA and we Starling gathering on wires like this are they getting ready to go south ???

    ReplyDelete

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Yoke.