I heard all this commotion coming from the garden, when I looked out the conservatory window we had 5 Starlings all fighting for the food at my feeding station, and boy where they going at it.
To try and explain what I have done with my feeding station to help with my photos, I found a dead branch in the woods behind my house, with that I attached it around the hanging feeders, this is then used by the birds to perch before dropping onto the food and hopefully give a more natural and eye pleasing photo, you may see the same branch with a different bird on it come up a lot in my future posts.
You will see what I mean when you see the starling pictures below, the 1st two pics show the starling on a feeder and the 2nd two with the Starlings further up the branch. Good idea I thought.
Photos taken with Nikon D70 + Sigma 170-500mm lense.
Hi there, Mike :-)
ReplyDeleteFantastic shots of the young Starlings!
I too have used branches beside my bird table. I planted a dead tree in a pot which never had leaves on it and I could see the birds very easily. They used it a lot. I finally had to remove it from the pot but now the nearby bamboo is beginning to overhang the table and is serving the same job. Now photos of ordinary garden birds on bamboo stems would make interesting shots :-D
Funnily enough, I too had an invasion of Starlings today. Not since they brought their very noisy chicks to feed them on sunflower hearts have I seen them return in numbers. I get alot more than five visit and yes by gosh do they do battle at the feeders and fat cakes!
I love your pictures of starlings. It's funny because I was looking at the latest BBC Wildlife Magazine and they have a competition asking you to "name the animal/bird" from close-up shots - and one of them is obviously a starling (except I hadn't realised this until I saw your shots today!). What gorgeous colours and patterns!
ReplyDeleteI think Starling look so pretty in their winter plummage.
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