An inauspicious start to the day…

I woke to the sound of heavy rain, and opening the curtains a single magpie flew straight over my head, there were 13s everywhere and my horoscope wasn’t good… (Yes, I’m that superstitious!)

Then when I went out into the garden, I found the bedraggled little body of this young starling lying in the flowerbed. He hadn’t been mauled by an animal, he must have been trying to shelter from the rain under the bushes when he died…

Yesterday evening I saw this young starling on the patio (ok, I’ve cheated and used a photo from yesterday, sue me!) and was worried about him then as he didn’t fly away when I approached him with my camera, he merely stood there looking at me, and then finally hopped away into the undergrowth. I could see he was very young and hoped that if I left him alone, one of the adult starlings would come down and feed him…

But today there has been no sign at all of my regular flock of starlings. I think, having reared their brood, they must have flown on to pastures new, leaving this young one behind. Maybe he was too ill to fly with them, or maybe he was just too young… Either way, he was abandoned and I didn’t do anything to help him…

It’s been one of those days…