Starling

Forcast was for rain, rain, rain later in the day (they weren't wrong) so I thought I'd better try and get a Blip in before work. There wasn't a huge amount of activity around the bird table but managed to get some captures of Robins, Blue Tits, Great Tits, Sparrows and of course Starlings. Went for the Staling in the end (not scrapping for a change.)

I was suprised to see that Starlings are currently on the RSPB red list, that of the highest conservation priority.

The Red list criteria is:

Globally threatened
Historical population decline in UK during 1800-1995
Severe (at least 50%) decline in UK breeding population over last 25 years, or longer-term period (the entire period used for assessments since the first BoCC review, starting in 1969).
Severe (at least 50%) contraction of UK breeding range over last 25 years, or the longer-term period.

I suppose when I think about it, their numbers are extremely low compared to "when I was a lad" (many years ago) but I'm not sure I could countenance thousands of starlings invading my feeding station! Apart from anything else I'm not sure I could afford the feed ;)


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