Sshhh, I want to tell you a secret. Mum’s the word..
In the mornings I have this routine.. most mornings.
I provide breakfast for some very hungry visitors. I feed starlings. There, I’ve said it. That’s one little bit of self sacrifice towards the natural world that lives around me. And then when I see the mini murmurations that fly over my back garden from November – February I think to myself. ‘You know, you’ve probably helped that happen.’ It’s a little thing but if each of us did our own little bit towards keeping a wonderful natural environment around us imagine what a difference we could make. I’m sure I’ve taken some photo’s of the local mini-murmurations but you’ll have to imagine them as I might have just watched them and remembered them in my mind.
My AtoZ Blogging Challenge is all about gardening, Lynne style.
If you’ve enjoyed reading this post why not see what others are doing too during 2017 AtoZ Blogging challenge, look in the comments on the letter of the day blog or like their facebook page. I look forward to seeing you back here tomorrow.
lynnelives 
I agree, if everyone did their bit for preserving the environment, it would make so much of a difference. Feeding birds and animals can actually be therapeutic.
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VINODINI
http://ifsbutsandsetcs.com/
Ahh so that’s why I love my mornings, a bit of therapy each day. I agree.
Good post.
Which of us doesn’t love murmurations? And how many of those of us that do, dislike the starlings that perform them?
BTW, don’t count me in that number. I’d be delighted to add starlings to the list of species that regularly visit our feeders.
When you look at them and get to know their song, they’re beautiful and can be very tuneful. They also have less likeable sounds but today I’m focussing on the positive.
I watch my neighbor feed the hummingbirds, squirrels, and wild turkeys that inhabit the acreage around our home. They are comfortable feeding in her yard and the hummingbirds come back every year. Murmurations is an interesting word.
I realise I probably didn’t explain what it was. When the birds flock in winter just before rooting each evening. It’s amazing. Not sure I’d like to live close too close to a big one but my mini one’s just fine.
Living as I do beside a beach, all I get to see are enormous and very unfriendly gulls. No need to feed them, they help themselves if they catch a glimpse of some hapless soul eating a sandwich!
Amble Bay’s May Fair
No oystercatchers or sanderlings? I get gulls here too, heading to the tip to feed.
What a lovely thought – doing your part to create a mini-murmation. And what a fine looking starling – I can understand you wanting to keep them close.
Thanks Deborah. They do give me enormous pleasure and make me laugh when they take a bath.
lovely. nature time is very therapeutic.
Magician
Definitely and I manage to have a little each morning.
Aaah, lovely. We feed the birds, too. We have many – all the tits, robins, ravens, dunnocks, nuthatches, wrens, pigeons of various descriptions, chaffinches, greenfinches, goldfinches, oh… can’t thin of them all. Woodpeckers. Blackbirds. But we do not get starlings! the squirrels also get a share. 🙂
M is for Lise Meitner – Physicist, #AtoZ Challenge
Of all of those that you get it’s the nuthatches which I’d love to see. Get most of the others bar ravens. Thankfully I don’t see the squirrel very often.
We have a lot of hummingbirds around our house – I can’t wait until we are back in July (for the summer/fall), so I can feed them. It wouldn’t be fair to start now and then stop for two months.
M: Montana & Mexico
DB McNicol, author & traveler
Theme: Oh, the places we will go!
I suppose it depends whether they were previously fed or not. I try to limit what I give particularly when there’s lots of natural food around but I do it for pleasure of seeing and hearing those birds in this neighbourhood so tend to give a little of their favourite foods. A bit like treating them to a very rich breakfast but not too much of it and they have to share with everyone.
Since moving from a country village to a seaside town I miss one thing more than anything else… bird song!
Another day in Amble Bay!
I lived in a seaside town before moving here and don’t remember not hearing bird song. I was probably so amazed with the seasonal squawk of the geese and seeing the waders that I didn’t realise there were less birds singing. The more I think of it I had a garden for about a year while I was there and I don’t remember who visited it or whether I even fed anyone. I’ll have to ponder that one.
I rarely have starlings here. There used to be a roof tile off the top of the three storey building next door to me, and starlings nested there year after year. They fixed it just before they moved, and after the disappointment for the first starlings back, they’ve not returned.
Today, Jemima on Ornithology
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