Starlings have Hatched :)

[sweedie]

Each year i have starlings nest in my attic the nest is always just under the eaves above my bedroom, so as you can imagine i get to hear alot of daytime activity!
I posted a thread a little while ago as i was a bit worried that i would see the same problem as i had last year... That being one of the chicks falling all the way down through the wall cavity to the ground floor window hollow where i could hear the poor thing tweeting for ages and couldn't get to it ... Managed to get it in the end though as the clever little thing set on a journey and worked its way back up through the wall cavity again to be greeted at the airing cupboard by me

Well looks like the recent brood have hatched as i have been awoken by the hungry twitterings of what sounds like a fair number of new arrivals? cant see them but the mum and dad are constantly back and forth, its exhausting just watching them, I have no idea how many there are but they certainly sound healthy, they get louder by the day... no sounds from my walls yet but i will be keeping my ears open! wondering how long it takes Starling chicks to fledge? can any one fill me in?

[Acipiter]

21 to 23 days

[sweedie]

Originally Posted by Acipiter

21 to 23 days

Thank you
That question could have been so much quicker! lol

[Feverfew]

How lovely - lucky you. I adore starlings, and have a flock of about 20 who dive bomb my garden every morning for their dish of dried mealworms. They are fantastic birds, were so common when I was a girl you saw them everywhere but not any more sadly.

[sweedie]

Originally Posted by Feverfew

How lovely - lucky you. I adore starlings, and have a flock of about 20 who dive bomb my garden every morning for their dish of dried mealworms. They are fantastic birds, were so common when I was a girl you saw them everywhere but not any more sadly.

Hello Feverfew They're great arn't they, very cheeky little bird and very bullish! lol
I get a mob that dive bomb my garden each morning also , I could probably run my watch by them,or the other way around hahaa I do know that they leave nothing and i have to do a brunch session for the Black birds and others who don't get a look in at the brekkie sitting costing me a small fortune!!
I love it when you get the huge flocks that fly around and around at the same time every evening getting bigger and bigger cant remember exactly when that happens now but each year there are usually two huge dark patches in the sky thousands strong... lovely sight

[Feverfew]

Originally Posted by sweedie

Hello Feverfew They're great arn't they, very cheeky little bird and very bullish! lol
I get a mob that dive bomb my garden each morning also , I could probably run my watch by them,or the other way around hahaa I do know that they leave nothing and i have to do a brunch session for the Black birds and others who don't get a look in at the brekkie sitting costing me a small fortune!!
I love it when you get the huge flocks that fly around and around at the same time every evening getting bigger and bigger cant remember exactly when that happens now but each year there are usually two huge dark patches in the sky thousands strong... lovely sight

Yes, I agree, we don't get those big flocks here but my sister lives in Brighton and they get them over the pier. Amazing!

Starlings seem to love motorway service stations too, and there are always loads of chipper little birds hanging around when I stop off at Oxford services on my way to Brighton.

[sweedie]

OH yes im sure i have seen those Brighton flocks on a documentry a few years ago, fantastic!
Nobody knows why they do it for sure? or that is what i remember them saying! (hope i have remembered that correctly )

[Za]

When I first moved to London many years ago Trafalgar Square had huge flocks of starlings roosting there every night, seemed to be hundreds of thousands of them, but not any more, it was an amazing sight every night seeing them all massing over the square.
Za

[willowjay]

Well my lot are hardly a flock, yet, but I do have very noisy eaves - and as I live in a bungalow - that means a very noisy dining room.

Actually it's been a delight watching the antics of 'my' starlings. They lined the nest with swan feathers, gathered from the top of Chichester Harbour a few hundred yards away, and have been fed on the patio beneath their feet regularly each day. The first quiet squeeks alerted us to the fact that the frantic nest building was not in vain, and the chirpings have become stronger each day. They actually sound like starlings now.

Their preferred food is dried mealworms soaked in the bird batch, though the adults of course can dine in style on all the offerings in the garden, fat balls, bird food, peanuts etc etc - and they are experts at leatherjacket extraction from the lawn.

So they are brilliant parents, and I look forward to seeing 'my' babies in due course.

[sweedie]

Originally Posted by Za

When I first moved to London many years ago Trafalgar Square had huge flocks of starlings roosting there every night, seemed to be hundreds of thousands of them, but not any more, it was an amazing sight every night seeing them all massing over the square.
Za

What a shame don't you see it at all now then Za, or are there just much less of them? I love the fact that they manage to start this the exact same time each night

Originally Posted by willowjay

Well my lot are hardly a flock, yet, but I do have very noisy eaves - and as I live in a bungalow - that means a very noisy dining room.

Actually it's been a delight watching the antics of 'my' starlings. They lined the nest with swan feathers, gathered from the top of Chichester Harbour a few hundred yards away, and have been fed on the patio beneath their feet regularly each day. The first quiet squeeks alerted us to the fact that the frantic nest building was not in vain, and the chirpings have become stronger each day. They actually sound like starlings now.

Their preferred food is dried mealworms soaked in the bird batch, though the adults of course can dine in style on all the offerings in the garden, fat balls, bird food, peanuts etc etc - and they are experts at leatherjacket extraction from the lawn.

So they are brilliant parents, and I look forward to seeing 'my' babies in due course.

Your right ..They are fantastic parents, you begin to feel a responsibility to the little chicks don't you,there was a magpie on my roof today investigating the chirripings and i found myself becoming quite anxious I have opened my bedroom window now as that is where the nest is (just above) that is the only way i could interfear without actually interfearing...if you know what i mean? lol
By the way when you say leather jacket extraction, would that be the reason i am finding perfectly rounded little holes allover my lawn??