Feeding the birds is an activity that gives me intense pleasure. There is of course the grey wagtail, which I don’t see every day, but I am fairly confident that there is a squadron of starlings that drop in for a refueling session at least once a day, and individually over the course of the day.
I love it when the starlings arrive, they are an absolute rabble and I know that there can never be enough food to feed them all, and the thought of any of them going hungry seriously distresses me. But I am comforted to a degree by the knowledge that my bird table is probably one of many across the town, and I think the various squadrons either have their own area. I remember I was out on a walk and I stood for a couple of minutes watching the garden of a house where the starlings were even busier than they are at our place. there must have been a couple of hundred of them all diving in in batches. I think starlings are quite communal, the way they were working in batches. I think it would be quite interesting to study their behaviour. One of their roosts is on top of the church at the bottom of the road.
Then of course, there are the pigeons which are forever trying to get on the table, and quite often succeed defeating my anti-pigeon measures.
I have to confess that I’m not even trying to stop the squirrells. Quite often, they get on to the table after the starlings, in which case they are getting the leftovers and I don’t really object to that.
Bills Posts 