Starlings

For a long time now I have wanted to record some photos of Starlings. I see them in and around my garden all the time and hear their raucous but also tuneful songs amidst all the other birds who frequent our neighbourhood.

I often watch them from the kitchen window as they bob along in an almost military strut pecking for tasty morsels in our grass.   There are times when their feathers look unkempt and others when they appear to use a lot of grooming “product”.   But they also have beautiful iridescent colours and delightful white speckles as part of their plumage.

I had tossed out some food scraps earlier in the week and these had drawn the sparrows, the occasional finches and some starlings. Later in the afternoon several starlings had arranged themselves on our boundary fence and my luck was in.

One of my real enjoyments as the day begins to draw to its end, is to watch the flocks of starlings flying at speed to their nightly roosting places. It is quite magnificent and if I am outside the sudden sound of the whirr of their collective wings is dramatic but fleeting.   A photograph of this has eluded me to date. But I like a challenge.

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Crunching the numbers

I’ve completed my annual bird survey today. The instructions were to record the largest number of each type of bird that was seen or heard at any one time – not the total number of each bird over the hour. That was a bit complicated but bird numbers were low in the garden today so it was not as arduous as I thought it might be.

The common sparrow headed the list, followed by wax eyes, blackbirds, chaffinches, starlings, and goldfinches. I could hear a Tui over the road feasting on the red flowering gum trees so that was included too.

Male chaffinch

I blogged about the 2011 bird survey here.

I received an email late this afternoon telling me that a new website is being set up so that I can record any observations relating to nature but it will also be where future annual bird survey results will be loaded. I’m really pleased about that as there are times when I see a new bird in the garden and wish I could tell someone “official” about it.

The other numbers I crunched today were on my blog. WordPress provides a raft of statistical data and I do check my stats regularly. This post will be number 308. My readers have posted 966 comments and I now have 70 blog followers.

Thank you to all my readers. It is very gratifying to know that you enjoy my postings and continue to turn the pages on my blog.

There is an interesting statistic amongst the people who regularly comment on my blog and that is that 4 of them have names beginning with the letter “J”.

I also have a regular group of “likers” and it is always a pleasure to find your “Like” appearing in my notifications.

11 of my blog posts have been “shared” and that seems an extra honour and potentially widens my audience.

Spam wins the day with 1,356 items that have been successfully thwarted at the cyber boundary of my blog and I am very grateful about that.

I began blogging with so much trepidation but now it is almost a habit and I miss the days when I don’t post something. I began writing to satisfy an inner voice but having gathered followers I feel spurred on to provide something that I hope will interest you in some way. My photography interest is proving to be very satisfying to me and that has been a surprise too.

Thank you again for reading, lurking, liking and commenting. You all enrich my days.