We haven’t seen much of the starlings recently, but today there were three on the greengage tree very early, irridescent feathers glittering in the first sunshine. Their sharp beaks are dark daggers they wield with something like gay abandon.
They returned in late afternoon, when none of the other birds were around, to swarm over the suet feeders. The starlings are not as agile as the great tits, too big to cling to the edge of the half coconut, they stab at the seed and fat mixture, wings beating furiously for a few seconds before they retreat onto a nearby branch, wiping their beaks on the bark. It is a rough but effective technique because they’ve cleaned out the last of the fat mix in the coconut shell. I’ll need to replace it tomorrow.
thekitchensinkbirdwatcher 