The starlings are nest building! The exclamation mark is a measure of the excitement, industry and disruption a pair caused in the garden this morning. I think that they may be first time nest builders, if only because their technique for collecting nest materials has more enthusiasm than technique. Rootling around in the leaf litter spread around the rose bushes, they pick out a straw or a fine twig and then one more and pick up another and another, until they have beaks stuffed with a variety of material. One bird tries to pass between two rose bushes and gets one end of a long straw, wedged between stems. It wrestles with it for a few seconds and then abandons it before flying off over the house with the remainder of the straws. The second bird, with as much as its beak will take, twigs long and short, starts the journey towards the edge of the rosebed and is doing better until it tries to walk across the snow-in-summer. One end of the longest straw dips and catches in the foliage. The starling tugs at it, but to no avail and now it is sinking into the mat of leaves, so it lets go of the long twig and up to its stomach in grey leaves it tries to wade to the edge. Sadly the further it goes it gradually loses all its twigs until all it is left with is a tiny slip of straw. Finally it drops even that and goes down to the grass to feed. Meanwhile the first bird, or at least it looked like the first bird…it was a starling…decides to try the other side of the garden and tackles what looks like a good wide strip of golden straw, grabs hold of it and pulls hard. Unfortunately, it’s the withered end of a leaf from one of the irises and as hard as the starling tries it will not tear away.
The sunlight is fading and all the other birds have left the garden but a pair of starlings are tucking into the fat feeders, seemingly ravenous.
thekitchensinkbirdwatcher 