ABC Wednesday......
S is for Sultanas and Starlings.......
Take one dish of sultanas (or raisins, or currants....) that have been soaked overnight...
...place on the lawn....
.....and wait.....
Of course, there are usually more than this, but today, as I wanted pictures of them..... hey ho! One day last week I counted 37 young ones. The adults made it at least 50.I know some people try to discourage them, but I love to help out the starlings. Their population has declined 75% since the early 1980s. If we're not careful, we'll lose forever that glorious sight of large flocks coming in to roost. Thousands of birds, turning and twisting through shapes in the air, a cloud opening and closing, hoops of black feathery water pouring down into the trees....
...not here though. Here, I give you SEVEN STARLING fledglingS popping by for a lunch of juicy SULTANAS:
(ooops... I think on recount, that's actually eight! Sorry!)*****
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*****
14 comments:
ok im looking for Alfred Hitchcock;)
nice shots
LOL at Marlow's comment!
Will remember this about sultanas...every now and again I have an urge to bake, rush out buy sultanas etc etc....and hey ho all I end up with is a cupboard full of ingrediants with nowhere to go...until now! LOL!
I will have to put out some sultanas, I like starlings and usually get a crowd of them visiting. Love your pictures.
I wasn't so keen on starlings (they used to frighten my other birds), but I didn't realise they were in decline! I would had to see them vanish for ever...
Your last picture is really lovely :-)
I will try that! For sure.
Love the last shot. :)
My S
You have some young ones there. And I agree. Down in Connecticut we had those huge huge flocks of starlings and they were considered pests. Here there are hardly any starlings. Except at my place. Every summer, after the red-winged blackbirds leave in August, the starlings come in a flock of hundreds and they spend the night in the tall grass of the meadow near the beaver ponds. But last year they did not come and I missed them so much. They are vulnerable to West Nile I know. I hope they just found a better meadow. I'm going to try this raisin thing real soon. Thank you!
I love to watch birds. I don't have any starlings, but I have lots of swallows. They are just starting to nest, so they are very busy right now. We also have two pairs of geese nearby. Two days ago one pair came by with one gosling. I invite you to come see my stump pictures. I have a section for birds if you are interested in seeing my bird pictures. -- Margy
I love that you love them all....
such wonderful pics felt lijke I was there. sandy
hah! great idea. I thought it was really a recipe at first and got worried thinking you would eat the birds. Im out of it. I think those birds are great
Lovely Helena! We feed the starlings too -young ones keep yelling for food and complaining that they're expected to feed themselves! We put fruit on the bird-table for them, as we have CATS!
Good idea, I think I'm gonna try it.
Nice pictures.
Those clouds of starlings are a magnificent sight -- thousands of them and they all turn and swoop and turn again all at the same moment. I have only ever seen them do this in England. We don't have as many starlings in Southern California. I tried to get a phot but it didn't turn out well.
I usually put out dried fruit for the blackbirds (the starlings get their fair share too) but I didn't know you are supposed to soak them. I hope I haven't choked any baby birds!
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