Starlings

[NV Whino]

This is what they were after.

[Solly Mack]

1. :)

[CaliforniaPeggy]

2. I hope you were wearing a raincoat!

[NV Whino]

3. In fact, I was.

But these were taken with a telephoto.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

5. Good thinking on both counts. n/t

[elleng]

4. OY!

[mnhtnbb]

6. OMG! The birds are coming!

[liberal N proud]

7. Right out of an old Hitchcock movie

When I was young, my sister would make me stay up and watch that movie with her.

[gregcrawford]

8. I believe that starlings...

... were introduced to this country when Frederick Law Olmsted thought it would be a good idea to populate the newly created Central Park in NYC with all the birds mentioned in Shakespeare. Thanks to his grandiose self-indulgence, we now have rats with wings.

[Cassidy]

10. Starlings were imported to the US by Shakespeare fans, but not by Olmsted

Eugene Schieffelin is the specific person credited with this introduction as well as that of house sparrows.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eugene_Schieffelin

Since Americans continue to import exotics and release them into the wild, we have apparently learned nothing in the last 120 years.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burmese_pythons_in_Florida

[gregcrawford]

11. I stand corrected...

... and thanks for the info. I guess the Olmsted story is urban legend. I first heard it back in the early 70s.

[Hoppy]

9. I saw a documentary about that once. I think it was about 1963.

The birds kept attacking people for no good reason.

[passiveporcupine]

12. Starlings are one of my favorite birds

Had one as a pet and he talked. I see them about a mile from where I live, but never in my dark and narrow valley.

[NV Whino]

13. You need to grow grapes

They are the cleanup crews around here.

[passiveporcupine]

18. My goats killed off my grapes, but

it's really too dark and cold in this narrow valley for Starlings (and for grapes). They are more open land birds, not hilly forest birds. I do miss them. I think they are funny and beautiful.

My guy would whistle part of "The Bridge over the River Kwai", and he said "Gimme Kiss". And they love to pry into things with their long beaks, like nostrils and ears and mouths.

They also love to shit on BMWs.

[truth2power]

20. I like starlings, too. I think they get a bad rap..

They're smart, and they have a multitude of different vocalizations - chuckles and whistles etc.

[tclambert]

14. Starlings worry me. A clever terrorist might find a way to splice piranha DNA into starlings.

Imagine flocks of terrorist designed piranha birds, moving as one, able to skeletonize a cow in minutes. I'm surprised the Republicans haven't yet demanded a ban on starlings.

[NV Whino]

16. OMG! GMO starlings!

[tblue37]

15. Starling murmuration (amazing video):

https://m.

[2naSalit]

21. Love that!

Sadly, I think it's one of the very few things I like about them. Everything in nature has a purpose, I am not sure what theirs is but it has to be something... and murmurations!

[Dr. Xavier]

17. When I lived on the coastside of San Francisco

I saw a battle between a flock of starlings and about a dozen ravens. The starlings had flown into our neighborhood and started to attack the trees that had berries on them. A single raven shows up, watches them for a few minutes and then starts to bark out orders and directions, suddenly a dozen ravens show up. Each one of them had a specific assignment, they actually flew to individual targets. It was natural aerial combat. The ravens were so much larger than the starlings and so much more mean. They chased out those little winged rats in a matter of seconds. Once the starlings left, flying south, the ravens stuck around for a few more minutes, then they took off after them again. From the looks of things, they were chasing them down the Peninsula. It was a thing of beauty. Love ravens and crows, hate starlings and pigeons.

[NV Whino]

19. What a story!

Ravens and crows are so smart. Around here, they hit the walnut trees. they drop a walnut in the road and wait for a car to run over it.

[2naSalit]

22. Apparently

They have lots of them in Rome...

http://www.npr.org/sections/parallels/2015/12/14/458917484/dodging-droppings-romans-cope-with-massive-influx-of-starlings

[NV Whino]

23. Fortunately, our annual visitors stay over the vineyards.

God, that must be a mess in a city.

[2naSalit]

25. That's mostly what the NPR piece was about. nt

[Adsos Letter]

24. Beautiful images.

Nice depth of field and bokeh. You really captured the feel of the countryside around here during late Fall. And even though these are still images you can really sense the movement of those guys.

I haven't forgotten about the Railroad Museum. It will probably be after the first of the year at the rate things are going.

[NV Whino]

26. Thanks

It was one of those situation where you just shoot and hope you get something worthwhile. It's the closest I've ever been able to get. Mostly I just see them doing their dance from a distance.

Yes on the railroad museum. For the slow seaso, it's been awfully busy.