This morning I spent 10mins watching the birds from my kitchen window. Apart from the normal feed I had also thrown out some bread. I was surprised to see my Mr Blackbird chasing off each starling that landed. Usually he picks up food and nips between the shrubs. He gave up when 6 starlings landed. Not near enough to photograph.
I love my blackbirds. We have a Mr and Mrs that have been around for a few years. Mrs has one white feather in her tail. Mr was chasing away robins this afternoon. We are really pleased that after removing a large conifer we now have a sort of half round area of mature shrubs and many kinds of bird food out these days and it's like an aviary. For the first time we have coal tits as well as blue tits, nut hatches and goldfinch. You reminded me, the starlings haven't been around for a while.
Still plenty of Starlings in my garden florald especially when I throw out spare bread :)
Two years ago I saw what I reckoned to be a couple of new Mr Blackbird brothers. One of them looked to have been mauled by a cat, missing wing feathers on one side and a miserable looking tail. They both stayed together all that year, and again last year and are now and still visiting my garden 3/4 times a week.
The healthy one has always been the food finder, the 'dodgy looking' one seems to be the shed roof look-out. The fitter one brings back food for the other one. He doesn't 'feed' him, he drops food close to him for him to pick-up. Neither one has a mate, they just seem like two dedicated brothers.
Nature is wonderfully strange.
How lovely, Ken.
Sinbad