Thursday 2 July 2009

Bird Battles

For those of you that get lots of Starlings in your gardens you would probably be surprised that I was not 100% sure that this was a baby Starling. There were no parent birds around and I didn't realize juveniles were so brown. I sort of guessed it was a Starling by its walk but was pleased to have it confirmed after watching a video on MIDMARSH JOTTINGS' blog. Obviously there are adult Starlings around nearby so I wonder why they don't come into my garden.



Just about every other bird has been paying us a visit along with their broods of youngsters. The garden seems like a bird version of Piccadilly Circus with all the comings and goings.

The Magpies have taken command of the ground and go around in a gang, like delinquent teenagers, terrorising everything and trying to undo the string that holds the runner bean canes together. Even the Pheasants get their tails pulled.

The feeding tree has become the domain of the Woodpecker family. They don't mind the smaller birds but hate the Parakeets and there are frequent wing flappings and squawkings as they argue it out. Once the Woodpeckers have driven the Parakeets away they seem to like to show their supremacy by drilling a few more holes in the poor old tree. I don't think the tree will survive for much longer.

There is so much going on I think I could happily spend all day just watching at the window but despite the hot weather I am still trying to do at least one walk a day. Today I chose a nice shady bridleway to wander down but other than lots of butterflies and a vole there wasn't much going on. I think everything was sitting sensibly in the shade taking it easy which is probably what I should have been doing as I got very hot. So something to cool down with; this is a picture of the same bridleway that I walked down today but when the photo was taken, only a few months ago, it was below freezing:-)


2 comments:

Midmarsh John said...

I find the Magpies so amusing, especially the way the young ones bounce around all over the place. They certainly investigate everything.

There seem so many broods of all sorts around at the moment. They are getting through my store of seed as though there will be no tomorrow.

The juvenile Starlings soon become independent but it does seem unusual that you don't have any adults there. I assume they must have another favourite feeding spot.

I guess the air show is over and done with now and some semblance of peace has returned, apart from the 'bird wars' as they establish their pecking order.

BTW - thanks for the mention.

Helen said...

Yes my feed supply is going down very fast too especially as we now seem to have 3 greedy squirreels around. It is worth it though as there is always something to watch...very useful at the moment if you are the wife of a tennis fan:-)