Tuesday, February 9, 2021

Sid Starling is Back!

Hi everyone! This is The Daily Bone, and I'm your watchful doggie reporter Chester L. W. Spaniel. 

As you can see, we've got plenty of snow. Lots of hungry birdies have been coming to our feeders, including Gordy Whitebeak and his team of juncos from Canada, Sparrows Incorporated, a cadre of cheerful chickadees, the occasional nuthatch, a cardinal pair, Debby Dove's extended family of Mournng Doves, and three big marauding crows. We even had a brief guest appearance of Mr. Cool Beans Cooper, our local Cooper's hawk, as he swooped across the yard. 

We put out some suet so we can attract that red belly woodpecker we've been seeing for the past week. Here's a not so good picture of him as he clung to the pear tree.


But look who discovered it first: Sid Starling!


"Ta-da! Yes, it is I, Sid Starling, and I claim this delectable suet cake for myself!"


Hello Sid! I see you're back from your winter activities.

"Ah, yes. I spent the past few months flying around with thousands of my compatriots in huge, gyrating flocks, looking for grain in the farmers' fields, wild grapes in the woods, and whatever we could scrounge in the dumpsters behind McDonalds. But now, I've decided to do some foraging on my own.  Hopefully when Spring comes, the wife and I will again take up residence in our old summer apartment located conveniently inside your neighbor's dryer vent, and raise several fine young offspring." 

"Hey, who's this? Oh no, it's cousin Marty the freeloader!"

"Get lost, Marty! This is my suet cake!" 

"Be gone, or I shall peck your beady little eyes out!" 

"That's right. Scram!" 


"I poop in your general direction!"






Sheesh! He sure is a surly character! I wonder what he's going to do about his other three cousins, Lucinda, George, and Carl?


Maybe I should sell tickets for that fight! Hehehehe!



15 comments:

  1. Chester...
    What great photos of Sid...OMBs he is quite a set of speckles. I don't think I've seen one close enough to notice. BOL BOL ""Get lost, Marty! This is my suet cake!" Birds are not into sharing..are they? I do love a woodpecker...
    Now all this said and done...you my handsome Friend are the finest of the crop today. Quite dashing pohtos.
    Hugs to you, GW and Dad
    Cecilia

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    1. Yes, it seems the starlings are especially speckled this year! (Say that ten times fast!)

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  2. You have a great variety of birdies coming to your feeders, Chester. Those starlings can be a pushy bunch!

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  3. We put out some seeds today for the small birds that sometimes come to our garden. We just hope they see them.

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  4. BOL!! Oh Chester, you gave Mama a big giggle today with all the Birdy escapades going on at your place!

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  5. I have found that the Sid's of the world always find their way back

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  6. Oh Chester, your snow is FABulous my furiend! And so are your beautiful burdies! I loves the spreckles on Sid! Marty's are okays too 😄 Our burdies come for our fountains ~ they likes to have their baths (can you imagine???? 😕). No snow heres, so there isn't a lack of foodables...LOTS of buggies! BOL!
    Kisses,
    Ruby ♥

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  7. You sure get a lot of birdie visitors in your yard, Chester, and we can see that you have lots of wonderfully deep snow!

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  8. Hi Chester, thanks for your post on our blog. You sure get a lot of birds at your feeder. We get mostly chickadees at ours, and once in awhile cardinals. We have a Chester in our agility class, sure hope we can start those again soon.

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  9. That Sid is a cheeky sort, isn't he? We hope his cousins gang up on him and make him share that suet cake.

    Woos - Lightning, Misty, and Timber

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  10. Hi Chester! (Marv waves wildly) That Sid Starling is quite the character! We have had the fllock wheeling around the village scaring the Morning Doves for a couple of weeks! I bet they are related...they fight over the mountain ash berries, they get drunk (the berries are fermented) and they fall all over the place and they are LOUD! We would pay to watch the fight over the suet cake! You guys are AWESOME and have an amazing day!

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  11. Those starlings annoy petcretary...they are so voracious they can eat a whole suet cake in minutes...I guess they are more efficient that the many woodpeckers we have here.
    Years ago before she got married, she twice had a starling in her house...one in the kitchen and one in the basement, that one got in through the furnace vents, via the chimney, he/she must have gotten stoned by the fumes and fell in...and got out before the furnace started up again. BOL!! He about spooked her, cause she thought there was a burglar down there...she managed to shoo it out through a window she opened up for it.

    We've been having 3 kinds of woodpeckers, red breasted and white breasted nuthatches, juncos, purple finches, goldfinches, titmice, chickadees, doves, tree sparrows, white crowned sparrows, blue jays, cardinals and of late a wren. Those dudes have sharp beaks!! We have others too, but I can't remember them all...oh yes, a brown creeper...I hear owls at night, but never see any...and there are various birds of prey...and Crows. So far no starlings are here...nor the grackles...yet...those birds we see here are some of the perks of rural living:)

    We can't wait for the robins and the bluebirds! Oh and the grosbeaks and some of the warblers, and the indigo bunting...and catbirds and kingbirds, and many others only seen in the warmer seasons.

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  12. Hi friend, Ojo here! Hurray for your snow! Aha, that's where all our juncos went!

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  13. GW and Chester thank you ...the horrible tornado was on our south coast near Ocean Isle...about 130 miles from here. Struck at midnight the poor souls had no warning..
    Thank you for you kind words on my blog today. We had 3" of rain since last Thursday. Taking photos has been like hunting for treasure. LOL
    Hugs cecilia

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