A starling on a neighbour's roof this week...
Last year the local starlings (Sturnus vulgaris) spent their summer holiday in our garden with their kids, feeding on raisins and fat.
A pale young starling in the garden last year...
It was a novelty at the time, as we don’t often see these rainbow ragamuffins in our garden, so I even wrote an illustrated blog post about it: Ruffians in star-spangled jackets…
This week they are back, but now there are half a dozen of them and they are beginning to eat me out of house and home. The other birds aren’t getting a look-in at the bird table and any fat-squares I put out are polished off long before nightfall.
Leatherjacket - crane-fly larva...
I blame myself, as I now put out dried mealworms as well and I wonder if they remind the starlings of their favourite feast – leatherjackets (crane fly larvae) from lawns…
I am fighting a losing battle as they keep a sentry on look-out on a neighbour’s roof for the moment I put out fresh food in the morning.
And if I shoo them off, they hang around until my back is turned again.
Two starlings on look-out duty on a neighbour's roof this week...
One thing I have learned since last year is that the lovely summer rainbow effect on the plumage is caused by wear to the feathers as they get old. The starling’s “proper” state is speckled with white stars, hence its common name, which means “little star”.
Although there is an old Greek word psaros, meaning “spotted or flecked”, so maybe that was an early influence on the names for this bird as well.
A starling in fresh plumage on rocks by the sea at Porthcawl last August...
According to All the Birds of the Air by Francesca Greenoak, other nicknames for the starling include Black Felt, Gyp and Jacob. It also has names like Sheep Stare, Shepster and Sheppie from its habit of landing on the backs of sheep to pick off the ticks with its sharp beak.
If you haven’t looked yet, don’t forget that blog post from last year, here…
The Squirrelbasket 
Birds for you this week… flowers for me. I can almost touch the little guys.
Some great photos…I just had to share this with you..This past week my Granddaughter( age 6) and I were in a parking lot when she spied a lonely starling and asked if she could give him one of her crackers. She proceeded to toss the cracker when the sky opened up…black..there were hundreds of starlings , they surrounded us, she tossed the bag of crackers and we ran ( I use a walker so perhaps “ran” was used incorrectly)anyway we got into the car and couldn’t stop laughing. Lesson learned..they are smart birds, they used the little guy as a “ruse”.
Thanks for letting me share with you….have you tried putting a fake owl in the area, my Grandfather used to say it kept the blackbirds away..weedbychoice..kjforce
Great story. Yep, they are real little con-men and gangsters!
Best wishes…
x