Starring starlings

Yup, I managed to get close enough!

I saw how he picked the pellet with the tip of his bill then flung it up to catch and eat it - like a student with a peanut.

After a while, he'd had enough of me watching.

When the starlings are in the garden, I tend to think of them as quite large. I suppose because they are bigger than the tits and robins and dunnocks. But when I see them in the park, they look tiny.

Here I spotted a couple going for grubs - and look at the size of what she's found!

The next day, I heard a sad little voice from the back lilac and wondered if it was the blackbird baby, but it was a starling - and an adult at that. When the bird saw me, he or she climbed up the tree, through the little branches and the jasmine, but didn't fly away. I thought he or she must be injured or sick.

There were other starlings up on the aerial waiting to feed and making usual starling whistles, not the little cluck-cheeps this one was making. I said to them, "Aren't you going to help?" and they flew away.

When I went out again later, the bird in the tree had gone. I hope he or she was feeling batter and had managed to join the others.