A Charm of Starlings

CJ posted today on the term A Charm of Starlings and explained how the term came about.   It has always seemed to me to be a most inappropriate term for these noisy, quarrelsome and usually objectionable birds (beautiful though some may consider them).  Given that the word charm arose somewhere before the middle of the 19 century and has now fallen into desuetude perhaps we should use another collective noun.

How about A Quarrel of Starlings?  Any ideas? 

Bathtime for the Birds

Today has been hot. Really quite hot indeed. In fact in the garden it reached just over 25 in the shade. As there was no breeze there was no wind chill factor either. It was a lovely day because despite the weather conditions once the early morning ones had gone there were NO MIDGES. So I managed to get quite a lot done in the garden this afternoon. Indeed I'm writing this in the Study at 2231 without a light on and it's a beautiful evening and 16 degrees. It is just so hard to believe that a few days ago I had a heater on because the temperature was in single figures.

Today it was not just the humans who were feeling the heat though. The stream became the cooling off point for some of the Starlings.

Starlings v Sparrows

A few days ago I blogged on the subject of Starlings. I received a comment from thingsoftheday qv. The gist of the comment was that starlings and pigeons were welcome visitors in their garden. It gave me to ponder on the issue perhaps a little more rationally. Then I realised how futile that was. The truth is that there's nothing rational about it. I just don't like starlings en masse (individual ones can be amusing because they are intelligent birds and great mimics) whereas I am happy with sparrows en masse and that has happened in the garden on an occasion a few years ago when I counted 78 sparrows waiting for breakfast:

Starlings

I commented to CJ the other day that the starlings had deserted the garden this year. I regarded that as a Good Thing. I've never quite worked out why, on the whole, we like sparrows and greenfinches but dislike starlings and pigeons. I suppose pigeons tend to eat all in their path and lots of it which is expensive when they empty a bird-feeder is a few hours. CJ pointed out that, on the whole, they just peck around the base of the feeder clearing up the seeds which would otherwise sprout amongst the chippings. Starlings, on the other hand, just eat and squabble and defecate all over the place. Anyway the point was that the starlings heard me and within the hour had descend en masse. Spooky. They have, however, not been back. Just making a point I suppose.