Posted by Matthew Sim
This summer while I was up in Calgary, I noticed a lot of starlings as well, especially in Fish Creek P.P. On one of my excursions to the park, I positioned myself beneath a Starling’s nest hole and managed to capture a few shots as the bird descended to feed it’s young.
Preparing for landing…
Landing; note food in beak
At nest hole; seems to be startled by the ferocity of its two young!
Posted by Bob Lefebvre
These stunning shots were sent to us by Rosanna Evans. Thanks for sharing! Click pictures for a larger view.
Taken at Carburn Park, Calgary:
Taken at Inglewood Bird Sanctuary, Calgary:
After the mild weather of the past few days, I hope we have finally seen the last of the snow, and I think European Starlings feel the same. The birds in this video seemed to be sheltering or seeking warmth on the stepping-stones on our lawn, which were warm enough to melt the snow. They were feeding on fallen crab apples from the previous summer.
Seeing them hunkered down in those round depressions kind of reminded me of the nursery rhyme “Sing a Song of Sixpence” about the four-and-twenty blackbirds baked in a pie…
Posted by Bob Lefebvre
The non-native, much-maligned, and beautiful European Starling.
There are usually a few European Starlings roosting overnight in the spruce trees near my house during the winter. Then, starting in late January, there is a big influx of starlings as the first returning migrants arrive. For the last ten weeks, there have been hundreds around the neighbourhood every evening.
The starlings start appearing at about sunset. Most of them settle first in bare deciduous trees, and they move around in small groups from tree to tree, with very little noise. (It’s when they disperse in the morning that they show off their incredible vocal skills.) Within an hour or so, as it is getting dark, they have all moved deep into spruce trees to roost quietly for the night. You’d never know they were there.
There are already dozens of European Starlings hidden in this spruce tree. (The singing bird is a House Finch.)
Starlings arriving in their nighttime roost during Saturday’s snowstorm.
I wondered if the masses of birds that appear at dusk each day were all local birds that disperse to feed during the day and return at night, or if they were new migrants arriving. When they arrive, they don’t seem to come from any particular direction, and often seem to appear in the trees out of nowhere. I’ve seen them drop down from such a great height that they first appear as tiny dots. It seems that it is a new batch of migrating birds each night. There is nothing special about the trees near my yard, and there are starlings landing in every tree I can see for blocks around. I can’t even guess at how many there might be in the whole city. But starlings are one of our most numerous birds, and recently there was a flock of tens of thousands seen in High River.
It will be interesting to hear if other people are seeing such big flocks of starlings in the city.
Posted by Bob Lefebvre
Birds Calgary 