Bird of the Day

Short-tailed and stubby looking, iridescent and speckled, starlings are almost universally despised by birders in the US since they’re another example of an invasive and aggressive non-native species. But I find them fascinating, they are the most amazing mimics, with their endless wolf-whistles, clicks, wheezes, chatters, and rattles. I never tire of watching them at this time of year (and through the spring) when they’ll flock up in psychedelic “balls” swooping and pulsating over parking lots and other open areas. There’s a place on Rt 101 in Hampton going out to the beach where you can lie down in the marsh grasses and huge flocks will cross the highway, swoop up over the road then dive down again, with the whole mass of them traveling just a few inches over the ground to miss your nose by inches and take several minutes to go by. It’s such a rush. This little group on the wires fetched near Rye Harbor, NH.