On my bird feeder today was a Starling feeding its young progeny. If I'd seen the youngster on its own I probably wouldn't have guessed that it was a Starling at all and would have gone rushing off to look up the exotic new species I'd discovered (this happens a lot).
I’m rather fond of starlings, and am sorry to see that they aren’t as plentiful as in my youth.
I got rather excited about a huge owl on a post near my former allotment the other day, and fumbled to get to my phone’s camera setting for ages before realising that the owl wasn’t moving AT ALL…. and was positioned next to the pigeon crees…….
I found it interesting this appeared on the same day I saw a young starling in my garden. I’ve just been watching the Nottingham Trent Uni peregrine falcon web cam – worth a look if you’ve not seen it. There are four (big) chicks, and the parents regularly visit them. It’s here:
http://www.ntu.ac.uk/ecoweb/ntu_doing/falcons/103295.cfm
I haven’t seen fledglings this year yet here in Hull. They are so cute!