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Tue 1 Mar, 2005 03:27 pm
We had 12 inches of snow last night, causing considerable confusion for man, beast and bird.
This morning I looked out and saw a starling bending almost upside down from the top of the suet cage gorging himself on suet. He also managed to balance on both the tube feeder and the square feeder for black oil sunflower seeds.
I've never seen a solitary starling before--only flocks of birds, feeding on the ground.
I get a solitary starling from time to time in the tray feeder with a few sparrows, and sometimes with a redbellied woodpecker.
Cinn--
You must attract poetic avian types.
It must be the pistachios.
Feed a starling, reap a poet.
I ain't gonna rape no poet. Solitary starling is not startling. It may have fallen behind the rest of the flock which bypassed your feeder. Good luck to him. They tend to follow the same pattern when they settle into an area so your loner knows how to catch up.
That starling may be temporarily without peer support, but he's well stuffed with suet and sunflower seed. He'll either get safely back with his buddies or he'll make a delicious morsel for someone higher on the food chain.
Solitary starling here may just be greedier than the others, sticking around longer to gobble up food, or getting to the feeder first. The others are often not too far behind, and who can tell them apart?, so they could be taking turns going solo.
Solitary doves are a very common sight at (in) my feeders.
Quote: Solitary starling is gobbling suet and sunflower seeds
That is perhaps the greatest title to an A2K thread that I have ever seen.
Thanks, Noddy.
Gus--
Thanks for the kind words cloaked in unsophistication. I'm whelmed.
Yesterday, I saw another solitary starling flapping around in the rafters of the local supermarket.
The parking lot there attracts English sparrows, sea gulls and the occasional crow.
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