Where have all the Starlings gone!!

[bigdave60dog]

I notice that you can buy dried meal worms by the bucket from "Pets at Home". These should be ideal for nesting Starlings if you just feed regularly according to your financial means you will be supplementing the birds other food sources which may mean the difference between life and death to some broods.
Birds (and most living organisms for that matter) have many needs.
Birds need appropriate food throughout the year,shelter roosts, nesting sites,safe places to rest away from predators etc. As well as individual and often indefinable factors eg. songposts, lecs etc. in order to flourish.
It seems that some birds can adapt very well eg. Rooks have vastly increased their population by learning to scrounge scraps and nest in lower trees whilst swifts can never live on anything than flying insects and sleep,fly and collect nest material on the wing only touching land to nest.
We need to know all of the needs of a given species before we can discern the reason for fluctuations in populations. I suggest that we do not know enough about Starlings to be sure but if we begin by providing food and nest sites at least we will not be doping any harm.
Dave

[counterlady]

Originally Posted by Pipa

i had a pack of starlings and thier babys in our garden one year, and i swear one mom was just shoving food into any baby's mouth that squawked at her wether it was hers or not LOL, was very funny

This did make me giggle

[Pipa]

Originally Posted by counterlady

This did make me giggle

Nature.. our natural entertainment.. was funnier than watching a comedy on tv

[KentYeti]

At the peak today there were circa 40 Starlings in my back garden. About a third were this years young.

Lovely noise and lovely to watch. But I'm gonna have to get some more fat balls soon. They love those!

What a change from the last few years when I'd only see a handful at any one time.

[Pipa]

i bought some mealworms for the first time from the RSPB website as they have them on special, starling went mental for them, for the first time this year i actually saw a large amount of starlings, i too was thinking they had gone down in numbers this year, so was very happy to see a whole bunch of them with their babys tucking into some mealworms & fruit suet

[bigdave60dog]

You can get dried maelworms by the bucket from "Pets at home."
Dave

[kathateria]

Well, in answer to your original post....they were all on my shed roof!
About 15,and 5 babies.The parents were still feeding them.Soooo sweet.