Another day, another starling ....

Another day, another starling …. Or maybe the same starling that didn’t learn its lesson the first time.  We have several nests in hidey-holes under the roof; mostly sparrows, but starlings, deprived of their previous nest-site on the south gable (which we got the builders to seal up, as they were making rather a mess of the roof woodwork), had set up home in a hole high in the north gable.  (That’s going to have to be sealed up as well, for the same reason.)  On Tuesday morning, I came downstairs and went to open the curtains and blinds, only to find a juvenile starling thrashing around behind the fireguard in the sitting-room.  It must have found a way from the nest area into the chimney and had fallen down.  It swiftly found a way under the fireguard and started flying around the room, fluttering at the window in an attempt to escape.  That window doesn’t open easily, so I popped out to the greenhouse, grabbed gloves and some horticultural fleece, and managed to corner my visitor, wrap it in the fleece and carry it outside, where it flew off, probably much relieved, into a tree across the road. 

Next morning: repeat performance.  Surely not the same bird?  The gap at the bottom of the fireguard has now been blocked up, so that any unexpected visitors will at least be confined in the fireplace until I can deal with them.  Neither bird made much mess, fortunately, but, while I go to some lengths to provide homes for our local wildlife outdoors, I do draw the line at sharing the sitting-room with them. 

We’re having regular visits from various other young birds.  The sparrows are bringing their youngsters to the patio, including one little one who has begged a blackbird and a woodpigeon for food; the pigeon looked at it quite concernedly but with some bemusement, and it hopped off to find its mum instead.  A little blue-tit came to the fatballs with its parent, but seems quite independent; it came back alone for a bath.  The blue-tits who had been nesting in the nest-box seem to have moved their brood out, and perhaps it was one of them; I've seen no others, and I hope that they haven't fallen prey to the jay, who is still about.  There are two young woodpeckers visiting the fatballs and peanuts, with or without mum; and a juvenile woodpigeon poking around in the area under the holly tree.  No young blackbirds for some time, although adults are about the place collecting food.

We had a brief visit from a homing pigeon which stopped off for food, water and a rest; it joined the woodpigeons on the patio, and I’d like to think that it worked out that anywhere that provided good conditions for the local pigeons would be a good pit-stop on its journey.

It hasn’t been good weather for butterflies, but there are lots of bees in the garden, currently mostly on the raspberries and cotoneasters; the big cotoneaster at the drive entrance is buzzing loudly.  A few weeks ago we had a bumblebee nest in a fencepost at the bottom of the garden, but I haven’t seen any activity there for a while.

The weather has turned a little warmer and not so wet, but, despite there still being plenty of damp hiding places in the garden, the frog returned to the greenhouse for a couple of days.  As I’ve now resumed taking plants out of the greenhouse to harden them off during the day, the disturbance may have been too much for him again – he wasn’t there this morning.