What's the point of Starlings? (1 Viewer)

birdman

Орнитол&

• Sep 10, 2003

• #1

I'll tell you what the point of Starlings is!

The last couple of days a flock of about 50 or 60 starlings has decended on our front lawn (covers about half of it) and proceeded to (I presume) dig for grubs.

We now have what must be 400 or 500 Starling-beak-shaped holes in the soil... which basically means I don't have to aerate the lawn myself!

Wish they'd come all summer!!!

 

Paul Rule

Well-known member

• Sep 10, 2003

• #2

And you probable no longer have a lawn full of leather jackets.

Paul

 

Geraldine

Martian Member

• Sep 10, 2003

• #3

I love starlings. They are the colour of petrol in rain puddles. We had some nesting in the loft years ago, and they used to trudge about, and hold tobacco auctions. And they stand about among waders, trying to look like something interesting.

 

L

logos

Well-known member

• Sep 10, 2003

• #4

Best bird on the British list IMHO.

Spud

Ps, Is that Sisyphus rolling the stone Geraldine?

 

S

simondix

Well-known member

• Sep 10, 2003

• #5

I love the Starling roost at Slimbridge in the winter. After a visit there I looked at Starlings in a different light.

 

birdman

Орнитол&

• Sep 10, 2003

• #6

Paul, thanks for reminding me what they're after... all I could think of was "grubs".

Geraldine, what brilliant description of their colour. I love 'em too.

logos/Spud, see above... I would put them high on the list as well!

Simon, I had a go at Slimbridge in an earlier thread... got loads of replies about the Starling Roost. Hope to see it this winter!

Thanks all for the replies!

:t:

 

steve_nova

Well-known member

• Sep 10, 2003

• #7

I remember in the good ol' days when I was a kid and Starlings were as common as........well Starlings, a flock of about (guessing here) 50-60 decended on this tiny front lawn of a nearby house. You just couldn't see the grass, literally!
Being a kid of course, I thought it was just fantastic to walk past them and raise my arms suddenly to make them all take off at once.
Actually, I would do the same thing now and I've just turned forty!

 

James Armstrong

Flowerpot Man

• Sep 10, 2003

• #8

Hi Spud,
No, Sisyphus is in the Drunken Bustard. I'm minding it for him! :hippy:

 

Geraldine

Martian Member

• Sep 10, 2003

• #9

Sorry, spud, that was me, on James's log-in.

 

Michael Frankis

conehead

• Sep 10, 2003

• #10

They're nearly extinct where I am. I haven't had a single Starling on my lawn for over 4 months :-C

This year Starling was species #34 on my yearlist, two years ago, it was #42 of 44 seen on 1 Jan - it took seven hours of searching before I finally found two in the late afternoon. And this in apparently ideal suburban habitat :-C

Newcastle used to have a quarter million strong roost every winter. Now there's maybe a few hundred at most :-C

I make that a 99.8% decline, and there's only one word for it - catastrophic. :-C

What are we doing to our world? :-C :-C :-C :-C

Michael

 

christineredgate

Winner of the Copeland Wildlife Photographer of th

• Sep 10, 2003

• #11

We have mega flocks of starlings at the moment,they have their flying hours and they are not in decline here in Cumbria.They are funny birds and they make me smile with their antics,it would be a very sad world without them.
Christine

 

birdman

Орнитол&

• Sep 10, 2003

• #12

Can't do much about your quarter of a million roost, Michael, but I must say it is many many years since I have seen so many Starlings - so maybe not quite as much doom and gloom.

Maybe all our friends in the US know where they are!

 

D

Dave B Smith

Well-known member

• Sep 11, 2003

• #13

Michael,

Sorry to hear they are nearly gone in your area. They are beautiful birds. And yes, Birdman, I do think I know where they are. The House Sparrow and Starling are both thriving in the US and I'm sure I needn't say more on that subject.

I think y'alls comments on the state of the Starling as an indication of how our environment is changing is another call to action.

 

Last edited: Sep 11, 2003

C

cuddy

Brian Robson

• Sep 11, 2003

• #14

They also do impressions, got one near me that has a Curlew off to perfection drives me round the bend as i would like a curlew on my house list

 

kingfisher

Scouser in exile

• Sep 11, 2003

• #15

We have had a pair of Starlings nesting in the side of the house this Spring and Summer and they raised 3 broods, and as my mobile tends to ring a lot, one of the parents now sounds just like my mobile.......very early in the morning it can be very confusing.

 

N

Nick-on

Well-known member

• Sep 11, 2003

• #16

Here in bird friendly Hereford we had a Starling roost of about 30,000 last winter. So this week they have cut down the trees they used to roost in (apparently they pooped on someone's car)
What a wonderful world we live in!!!!!!

 

Charles Harper

Régisseur

• Sep 11, 2003

• #17

Thanks James, I've been trying to think of 'Sisyphus' ever since the avatar appeared, but never remembered to look it up when I was off-line! All I could think of was 'Tantalus', but I knew his was a different comeupppance...

 

Michael Frankis

conehead

• Sep 11, 2003

• #18

Hi Nick,

Yes, very sad, that sort of mentality. We've got the same mob here too, campaigning to expell our unique inland Kittiwake colony nesting on the Tyne Bridge and adjacent buildings

Michael

 

L

logos

Well-known member

• Sep 11, 2003

• #19

As with several mimetic species several of the sounds made by Starlings which seem to be of their own creation may actually be of species which only normally occur somewhere else. I've heard Starlings in the Uk in early spring imitating Common Rosefinches, Golden Orioles and Thrush Nightingales. Presumably such birds are wintering in Britain but nest well to the east, probably in Russia.

Marsh Warblers are even more striking in this regard and may have no song phrases of their own, any sounds you don't recognise are probably of East African species heard by the birds during the winter.

Spud

 

Michael Frankis

conehead

• Sep 11, 2003

• #20

When there used to be Starlings here, I only heard them imitating Curlews close to dawn and dusk - worked out that it was Starlings that had spent their day down at the coast (11 km east) feeding on the beach with Curlews, and passing by here on their way to & from the city centre roost (3 km southwest). The local feeding Starlings never really seemed to pick it up (not sure why they never learnt second-hand from other Starlings!).

Michael