I was watching a HUGE flock of starlings this morning, so many that they looked like a cloud of black smoke & thought how sad it must be to only have the time to say "hi" or "nice wings" before you have to change direction & meet a new flying partner !

keef

Doesn't just apply to starlings, Spartacus. Sounds much like everyday life to me.

Yeah, thanks a lot to that jackass that wanted to bring all of Shakespeare's birds to the new world, as we are inundated with them...one of the few "open" season birds we have for falconry now...as many as we take a year, there seem to be more and more every new day !!!!!
greg

I remember starlings up north, they were everywhere....like in Alfred Hitchcock "The Birds". Here the common bird is a boat tailed grackle. Large black bird that dances and makes all kinds of wild sounds, very noisy...I like them. I've been seeing quite a few bald eagles too...and Ibis's. But no starlings...too warm here for them I guess?

All I've seen in HK are sparrows, pigeons and the ocasinal eagle..dunno which type though :neutral:

Last year I watched a woodpecker carve a hole in a tree for several days, as soon as it was finished the starlings moved in, to bad it's agin the law to discharge firearms inside the city limits :mad:

Does a cross-bow or sling shot interest you?
I also do know how to make a simple nitrogylicerin which could be coated on to small rocks and goes flaming on inpact. :twisted:

All I've seen in HK are sparrows, pigeons and the ocasinal eagle..dunno which type though :neutral:

Hi Eric

I saw eagles over the harbor in Hong Kong, fishing. I guess those were osprey. I was very surprised to see them in the heart of the city.

We have starlings all over New York City, but the peregrines here seem to favor pigeons.

Melissa

friends, be not too harsh upon the humble starling :sad: for many a pestulent six legger has succumbed to their urgent attention :smile: saving the poor & weary farmers :roll: winters of shivers & famine (though they do poo a lot !)

we've red kites, big eagley things, kestrels coming out of ear'oles, big owls, small owls, little owls, woodpeckers, great egrets blah blah blue tits, coal tits, tit tits (naturist camp in Ste. Hermine), greenfinches, goldfinches, bullfinches, finchfinches blah blah, peewits by the miwwion
blah blah & we got thrush too, sorry thrushes !

Phil, sell your castle & move to France where QOL comes 1st ! & the work ethic con has been rumbled long since.

Keef

Hey kevin pellet rifels arent considerd firearms. I have one that I keep around during nesting season. The starlings seem to like to hole up in the cowlings and other crannys of our airplane. I agree they are a nussance and wish I didnt have to dispach them like this but alas it must be done.

Pacific Blue

so can anyone tell me, did starlings find it so easy to expand in north america because we killed off the passenger pigeon and left a niche open for them?

in vancouver bc the crested mynah was introduced from asia but did not have nearly the success of the starling. the starlings range has expanded into vancouver and they outcompeted the mynah now, no more mynahs left in vancouver. i think the last one was sighted in 1998.

Just this summer a pair of Eurasian Collared Doves started nesting in the tree across the road, maybe they will force the starlings out

Gone to the Doves (http://www.birdsource.org/features/doves/)

Just this summer a pair of Eurasian Collared Doves started nesting in the tree across the road, maybe they will force the starlings out

Gone to the Doves (http://www.birdsource.org/features/doves/)

Thanks, Kevin! This is great. NY pigeons have changed their clothes and come in more than rock dove grey these days. There are beige and brown birds that look like obese mourning doves, and melanistic Beat pigeons in black turtlenecks. Others are just patchy like with all the color combinations. Starling numbers seem not to have diminished, perhaps there is enough real estate for all these avian residents.

Melissa

blimey, what have I done ?!
my observation of the the flock habit & it's inability to encourage deep meaningful conversation between flock members has spawned a thread plotting their downfall. what have I done !

Keef

but in europe, starlings are not an invasive species.

indeed, but like all organisms on this planet, they are there for a reason/to fill a niche, granted that sometimes it doesn't fit in with Homo sapiens requirements. (Homo sapiens being way more invasive than any starling ever has)
no one likes cockroaches but cockroaches are adept at clearing up our mess & it would be an unhealthy planet without the humble maggot. I'm sure that if Beatrix Potter had dressed roaches & maggots in cute fluffy slippers & Tweed jackets they'd be far more popular ? :grin:

Keef

sure h. sap is invasive but are you suggesting, say, that possums in New Zealand, rabbits and cane toads in Australia, beavers in Chile - destroying native species left and right, driving native species further towards extinction, all because of their intervention and dispersal by dumb humans moving these creatures into an ecosystem that has not had time to adapt to them - is a good thing?

Get a Starling flock pic for your desktop

Starlings in NG (http://seabed.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/wallpaper.tmpl?issue_id=20050301)

second one down (get them while they last)

Learn more about Alien Invaders (http://magma.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0503/feature5/index.html) in this months NG (boy, I sound like a commercial :sad: )

There is also a picture of a couple of Irish Cuttle-Fish.

You picked a good time to bring up Starlings :wink:

sure h. sap is invasive but are you suggesting, say, that possums in New Zealand, rabbits and cane toads in Australia, beavers in Chile - destroying native species left and right, driving native species further towards extinction, all because of their intervention and dispersal by dumb humans moving these creatures into an ecosystem that has not had time to adapt to them - is a good thing?

a good thing it certainly is not (though it is for introduced species numbers) but the only bad guys are us for meddling.
though at the end of the day it's all part of the evolutionary process.
pandas are doomed - let's move on

Keef