Hello. This is The Daily Bone and I'm your intrepid doggie reporter Joseph (Joey dog) Spaniel and I'm live in the back yard in the bright sunshine and 60ยบ weather! Around here in early March, that's considered a heat wave.
There are signs of spring everywhere! The puppy willows are popping out!
The hawks and vultures are back.
Speaking of birdies, we have a story about the local starlings. Almost everybody knows what a starling is. They're extremely common, and can be found almost all over the world. In winter they fly around in huge flocks. Ghostwriter says never park underneath them or else they'll cover your car with birdie poop!
You may remember when the starling flock visited our yard a few weeks ago.
This time of year the flocks break up as individuals look for a mate and a nesting site. We hear them singing in earnest in the tree tops all day long now. Did you know they are great mimics? Last year, ghostwriter tried an experiment. She went outside and stood in the yard like a complete idiot and whistled at the starling up in the silver maple tree. After a few days, the starling imitated the whistle. Other local starlings soon learned the whistle too. But here's the big surprise: the starlings still remember that whistle and a year later, can be heard singing it along with their usual repertoire of squeaks, rattles, and imitations of other song bird calls. Isn't that amazing?
This time of year the flocks break up as individuals look for a mate and a nesting site. We hear them singing in earnest in the tree tops all day long now. Did you know they are great mimics? Last year, ghostwriter tried an experiment. She went outside and stood in the yard like a complete idiot and whistled at the starling up in the silver maple tree. After a few days, the starling imitated the whistle. Other local starlings soon learned the whistle too. But here's the big surprise: the starlings still remember that whistle and a year later, can be heard singing it along with their usual repertoire of squeaks, rattles, and imitations of other song bird calls. Isn't that amazing?
I wonder when they'll learn to imitate Chester's barking?
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| Hey! |
kind of reminds us of that movie 'birds' :)
ReplyDeleteStarlings may be common, but I guess they have some smarts as well!
ReplyDeleteWe had about 71F here today...and now we are going to get the rain...wait, isn't that supposed to be in April??
Their flocks are sure huge!
ReplyDeleteLove when there are little signs of spring popping up around us
ReplyDeleteLily & Edward
In Denmark when the starling flyes in these huge flocks we call it Black Sun, because there are so many of them. It's fantastic :)
ReplyDeleteOh we thought of that movie also..........ugh....stella rose
ReplyDeleteHappy Spring!!
ReplyDelete