STARLINGS

[nuthatch]

his favourite is Beethoven

[Placido]

Very interesting, both of them, Bikey .
I'd heard of that Mozart and his pet starling thing before somewhere.
Interesting that Lloyd had his mirror covered over - safety presumably.
The sturk flying alongside the car in the 2nd vid was really cool !! but a couple of times I misheard the phrase, "flocking birds" and thought, "well why are you talking about them if you don't like them ??" - then the penny dropped ......

[nuthatch]

Getting clouds of starlings descending they line up on the roof ridges and aerials over the way

[Placido]

One would be good

[greenfinch2]

I have lots just now coconut shell last a morning.

[Placido]

Maybe this explains the age-old mystery of why some mommy sturks have more sturklets than other mommy sturks:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b0 ... he-rainbow

Click on 27.31 for the answer (the following bit about eagles is good too ).

[Placido]

More about starlings ~ seems that young sturklets aren't very good at handling communal baffies.
Scientists have researched the mass drowning phenomenon and discovered that multi-bathing isn't a good idea for the youngsters.

[Biker]

Maybe this explains the age-old mystery of why some mommy sturks have more sturklets than other mommy sturks:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b0 ... he-rainbow

Click on 27.31 for the answer (the following bit about eagles is good too ).

Fantastic bit of info and great bit of filming placi. Enjoyed that. These are the Starlings owned by Lloyd and Rose Buck. I went to see them at the Hawk Conservancy last weekend. Three hours of great entertainment and knowledge sharing. They brought along their Raven and Owl, but the Starlings stole the show. They only brought along five, because the other two didn't want to come (they let the birds decide). Similarly, most of the Starlings on TV (RSPB advert, Poldark etc) are their birds and for the RSPB ad, only one would go into a nesting box, so that's the one they used.
Their most famous Starling, Arnie, flew straight from his cage onto my head. I was seriously chuffed. Lloyd told me that Arnie was found outside of a nest in a gutter and he thought the bird was dead as it was blue with cold. He took Arnie indoors and the bird started showing signs of life, so he looked after him and the rest is history.

[Jacksparrow]

Sounds like a fantastic show biker. A photo of Arnie on your napper would have been brilliant.

[Biker]

The Hawk Conservancy very kindly sent me this photo today.

Arnie1a.jpg

..and here are few I took (poor quality, of course):

LloydBuck1.jpg