Nest In the Letterbox

Starlings try nesting in my letterbox often, but they quickly abandon it when a bundle of free newspapers is stuffed into the slot, sometimes with a sitting bird inside. There were two eggs in the box when I looked for mail this morning, but by the time I got round to going out with the camera one egg had been removed and was broken on the ground. The eggs are always removed in this way. I’m sure it’s the birds themselves that do this.

Other starlings are nesting here this year. The nesting box I built many years ago has noisy chicks in it for the first time in three years. It used to produce 2 or 3 batches a season. There are always starlings living close to my house. They come in late afternoon for the night and then in the morning they go off for the day into the countryside to graze.

One old or infirm bird is staying home all day. When resting it sits rather than perch.  It became interested in the fat I put out for the waxeyes when the blackbirds started attacking the swinging net holder. I had arranged things so that the blackbirds couldn’t alight on the fat as the waxeyes did. This led them to dive at the fat to knock bits off to the ground, where they could pick it up. Enter the starling. Whenever a blackbird appeared near the fat it flew down and positioned itself underneath and quickly gobbled up what fell. This made the blackbirds really mad, and I had hilarious moments watching their antics from the kitchen window. Last time the fat ran out a few days ago I did not replace it. Now it’s rather quiet out there.

I’m late posting this blip because it was such a beautiful day I spent most of it working in the garden, and was too weary to do much else.