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December 01, 2005 - The star-spangled starlinge Suffolk Times • December 1, 2005 The star] spangled starling When filled with starlings, the trees seem to be once again in full foliage, but this time instead of leaves, it's birds. With a little imagination, when you saw these starlings flying in great masses, all moving as one, they took on the annearance of windblown smoke. HAVE YOU SEEN any of the huge That says flocks of starlings that have gathered around our North Fork? And to Focus something for this aggressive think they are a relatively new bird ON immigrant that to our land. Sixty starlings from Eu- we see in the rope were introduced into Central NATURE fields and in Park back in the 1890s, and from that our back yards small number they have multiplied by Paul and in the air. and taken up residence in every stat StoutenbF Just last week we were lucky in the Union, including Alaska, and in the provinces of Canada. to photograph what looked like a swarm of black dots. They gave the impression of a great veil of smoke as the mass moved up and down through the air, finally settling in a group of trees, where we captured them on film. We actually photographed this flock from the car, and as we rolled the window down, we could hear their chattering going on almost like a machine running. When we were photographing that huge flock of starlings the trees were leafless, then all of a sudden it looked like they were back in foliage as wave after wave of birds landed on the limbs. Their combined weight actually made the limbs bend down. Down South, where they mingle with the grackles, redwings and cow- birds, they form concentrations of mil- lions and do tremendous damage to the farmers' grain crops, just as they do up here to our farmers' crops. Yet at certain times of the year they will actu- ally do some good. When you see them probing in your lawn, they're after the grub of the Japanese beetle and oth- ers, but I'm afraid that still doesn't put them in good standing with the farmer, who has his crops at risk when they are around. The name "starling," meaning "little star," comes from the starlings' spangled appearance when you see them in the wintertime, for it's then the bird puts on its gaudy, speckled appearance over its iridescent blue - black coat. Since the starlings are so active throughout the winter, their feathers wear down and the speckled effect is lost by springtime, whe birds appear in a more glossy black plumage. The starling's bill also changes color with the seasons, it being a grayish -black in the winter but as spring arrives slowly changing to a yellowish color. Another trait the starling has is that it doesn't hop along as many birds do, but actually walks and runs. I see this in my back pasture, when a small flock lights and starts to feed. The ones that are in the back pick up and fly forwar( to grub for insects and seeds. Then, lik a Panzer division, the birds in the rear fly forward, and the process repeats itself. It's like they're on a conveyor belt walking and running as they mov across any given area that might hold food. Starlings don't like deep woods. They like open country, farm edges and houses where they can always find something to eat. It's here they often nest in areas around people, or they might nest in a dead tree where a yellow - shafted flicker chiseled out a nesting cavity. They just take over the nest that was so patiently created by another bird. They are a menace to our native birds in that respect. They force the native birds to go elsewhere. Starlings are great innovators and will build anywhere, under the eaves of buildings or even in your birdhouse. I have one that persists in building in our little barn where we keep the animals. It flies out as I approach the building. Starlings do a great job of finding places to build, which brings me to an unbelievable story a friend once told me. He had something he wanted me to see, since he knew I was interested in birds. I went to his house, where he pointed to a hole in the side of his building. It is believed that a starling in a frenzy of nest building kept bringing nesting material and depositing it in the hole. Just inside the hole there was no platform and so the nesting mate- rial fell to the floor below, making 'a pile of debris three feet high. Evidently. the starling never went inside to check his work. I had to see it to believe it. I've mentioned this before but it is so unusual I had to mention it again. Star- lings do build bulky nests but that pile of debris was too much. Starlings are great innovators and will build anywhere. Most of our trees have by now lost their leaves. The one exception I see is the willow tree. We have several willows down by the pond, and in the spring they are the first to come out to show us their greenery and in the fall they are the last to let go of their leaves. The willow loves to have its feet in moist ground. When we first bought this property it was farmed right to the edge of the pond. There were no trees, no bushes, no nothing. Then one day I saw where they were cutting down a willow tree. I asked if I could have some of the branches, for I had heard that all you had to do was push a limb in moist soil and it would grow. Well, believe it or not, that is exactly what happens. I poked those four or five limbs into the moist soil at the edge of the water and those limbs grew into trees. Now, 50 years later, one had rown into a monster, 18 inches in diameter. Sorry to say, its life was cut short by our.. cows, which nibbled the bark away and literally killed the tree. I learned my lesson from that, and now we put a fence around certain rubs and trees, like the magnolia 'rom my dad's place. Now the cows ;an't get at it. I did the same with the iogwoods, also from my dad's. So, with he fall leaves that have covered our awn and the green willow tree down )y the pond and the glow of the yellow eaves of the maples and the maroon eaves of the oak, we close the summer eason once again. P.S. — As I write this, there's a cold vind out of the northeast and, with t, just a reminder of things to come, t started to snow. It only lasted a few ninutes — just long enough to let us now winter is about to start.