Wednesday, February 12

Iridescence


 Copyright: Original post from Our Plot at Green Lane Allotments http://glallotments.blogspot.co.uk/ author S Garrett

28 comments:

  1. Great pictures. I wish we had starlings in the garden. Have some some fantastic murmurations though, over the fields and the estuaries down here.

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    1. I've never watched a murmuration, Jessica other than on TV and would love to/ It's a case of knowing where to be at the right time.

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  2. They are ever so shiny aren't they. We have loads of starlings here bucking the trend as it were so we get treated to some lovely murmurations too

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    1. They are, Jo even more so when it is really sunny

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  3. Stunning. We stood underneath a starling at the weekend marvelling at his feathers. Then we thought we'd better not stand directly underneath for too long. We saw fantastic murmurations out of our front windows last year - nothing this year though, we're disappointed.

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    1. Not advisable to stand under a bird for too long CJ :)

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  4. beautiful piece of artwork by Nature.... delicate. Well captured indeed.

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    1. Nature is indeed the most talented artist, Bangchik

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  5. Starlings and sparrows seem to get such a lot of bad press for being brown and boring, but they're just a beautiful as other birds if you really look at them. I was watching the starlings fighting over the suet blocks yesterday, they love them. Have you seen the Superb Starlings at Lotherton Bird Garden? They're beautiful, much brighter than our starlings, but still iridescent.

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    1. I have seen the brilliant blue starlings, Jo - not sure whether at Lotherton or Harewood - it's ages since we went to either. You are spot on about people not appreciating what they see as the less colourful birds.

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  6. Such sleek, handsome birds! They somehow seem so purposeful, almost "well-designed". We seldom see more than the odd one or two here. When I was young we used to see millions of them (probably literally) assembling to roost on the telephone wires near Penzance railway station - presumably getting ready for migration.

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    1. Some do migrate, Mark. Birds from Northern Europe come to the UK to over winter and increase our starling population. Lots also gather to go into cities to roost where it is warmer or into reed beds etc. They roost in large numbers so the gatherings you saw may have been flocks coming together to roost.

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  7. Wonderful , clear pictures Sue. I am such a fan of "ordinary" garden birds. When you get a chance to look at them closely like that you can really see how beautiful they are!

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    1. It does often seem that makers of wildlife documentaries ignore our 'ordinary' garden birds, Jill in favour of more exotic birds.

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  8. Fantastic markings, fantastic photography.

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    1. Thank you, L. It wasn't until I took these photos that I realised how brown the markings were on the birds back. Having seen them in the photos I now notice them in real life. The camera has trained my eye!

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  9. The starlings are called those pesky starlings in my garden Sue - some of them have such beautiful iridescence and the black is almost blue.

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    1. The are funny birds, Angie especially when squabbling over food. Then again if they didn't squabble they would probably eat twice as much!

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  10. These starling pictures are wonderful. Their feathers so shiny on some of the photos all colours of the rainbow are showed, beautiful!

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    1. The feathers change colour depending on how the light hits them, Janneke

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  11. How beautiful, I love the detail especially in the third pic where you can see the green on the feathers.xxx

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  12. So many people complain about the starlings but in the right light they do have beautiful colours...and they help to keep the ants down too!!

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    1. They also eat leather jackets fron lawns, Tanya

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  13. They look rather exotic in their spring plumage.

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    1. The do when you take the time to look closely, Alain

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    1. But most of the time they go ignored, Endah,

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