Archive for starlings

For the Birds

Posted in Biographical, Maynooth with tags , , , , , , , on November 23, 2025 by telescoper

The weather here in Maynooth was very mild until a couple of weeks ago and with the arrival of inclement conditions I started putting out the bird feeders in my garden. I can see the level of the seed from my kitchen window so know when they need filling up. I had one out for a couple of days before the arrival of Storm Claudia with associated torrential rain, but when it passed I was surprised to see the feeders were still half full so I left them.

Last weekend it started to become very cold so I was surprised there were no birds at the feeder. When I went out to look I realized that owing the heavy rainfall some water had got into the seed container, with the result that some of the seeds had started to germinate. This formed a tangled mass of shoots that blocked the gap through which seed is dispensed. The reason the feeders were not empty was not that the birds weren’t hungry, but that no seed was coming out.

I took the feeders inside and cleaned out all the matted seedlings. Then I took them back to the shed to fill up, at which point I knocked over the jar in which I stored the birdseed, scattering the supply all over the floor. There wasn’t much left anyway, but my clumsiness reduced the stock to zero so I was unable to feed the birds despite having functioning feeders.

Yesterday I finally had time to buy some more birdseed. I filled up the feeders as soon as I got home. It was quite interesting to watch the sequence of events. The first to arrive were sparrows who, being small and agile, were quite happy taking terms perching at the feeders. Not long after, however, starlings arrived, squabbling and squawking as they usually do. Starlings are much larger then sparrows and are extremely messy and noisy eaters, their attempts to perch at a feeder causing it to swing and scatter seed all over the ground.

(Incidentally, the term for a large group of starlings is a murmuration, a congregation, a cloud, or a constellation, but there are alternatives for a smaller group like the dozen or so that arrived in my garden. These include a clutter, a scourge, a vulgarity and, my favourite, a filth…)

Some starlings and sparrows started to feed on the ground, as did a very bonny collared dove, walking around calmly amid the flurry of other birds and paying them no attention at all .

At this point the feeder was almost empty.

The last cohort to arrive were the rooks and jackdaws. These are too big to even attempt to perch so their modus operandi is to crash into the feeders to try to break them or knock them down to the ground where they are easier to attack. They didn’t succeed, so they left.

Now the feeders are empty, the birds have gone, and all is quiet. I think I’ll put more food out tomorrow before I go to work. I imagine they’ll be empty by the time I get back home.

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Garden Birds

Posted in Biographical, Maynooth with tags , , , on September 20, 2020 by telescoper
A blue tit at the peanuts

The previous owner of my house left a bird feeder in the shed so I decided to see what sort of birds would come if I put it up. The feeder has quite a wide mesh so I bought a sack of peanuts, filled it up, and suspended from one of the trees.

Almost immediately a group of starlings arrived and took turns at pecking at the contents. I know that some starlings are resident all year round, but there is an annual influx of migratory birds around autumn. It seems a bit early for the continental starlings which usually start to turn up in October. Anyway, they seem ravenously hungry but are rather messy eaters and keep dropping bits on the ground.

The principal beneficiary of the starlings’ messiness is a robin, whose tactic is to wait underneath for peanuts from above. It does not seem keen to attempt the acrobatics needed to feed directly from the feeder. Sparrows do this too, but not when the robin is around as the robin chases them off; robins are feisty little critters. This one isn’t afraid to have a go at the much larger starlings if they descend to ground level.

There are at least two blue tits that visit the garden but they rarely get the chance to get at the peanuts before being scared off by yet more starlings. The picture above is an exception.

To help the smaller birds I bought a second feeder with a finer mesh that the starlings can’t get into this and filled it with mixed seed. The blue tits have this to themselves but obviously like the nuts too and will go to that feeder if there are no starlings.

Yesterday one of the many resident jackdaws tried the peanut feeder but failed in its mission as it was too big to hang on.

So far apart from those mentioned above I’ve also seen a chaffinch and a great tit but mainly it’s been blue tits and starlings. Of course I’m not in during the day so there might well be other species of garden visitor that I don’t see.

I’m thinking of getting a third feeder (for fat balls, etc) but I’m told that around here that will just mean a garden permanently full of rooks jackdaws and magpies. Any suggestions for alternative feeding mechanisms that might attract a wider variety of birdlife are welcome!

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