My desk is placed 10 feet from a suet feeder placed on the opposite side of a large picture window.? The question is ~ when I?m at my desk, am I working or am I bird watching?? Yesterday and today I was bird watching ~ observing very strange Starling behavior.? This is the 2nd day in a row I?ve watched a recently fledged starling fight and beat off adult Starlings from the suet feeder.? It didn?t happen just once, but at least 5 times over the course of several hours.? Further strange observations:? 1)? The fightingest fledging appeared to be the youngest and drove off not just adult Starlings, but also older fledgings.? 2)? This aggressive fledging drove off a female Downey Woodpecker feeding her fledging.? (The female Downey would wait in the lilac bushes until the fledging Starling flew off the suet.? She would then fly in, look around nervously, and fill her bill with suet and either fly back to feed her fledging in the lilac bush or
the fledging would fly close to the suet feeder and be fed there.? Sometimes the fledging Starling would fly back and chase off the female Downey and her fledging.)? 3)? The fledging Starling did not try to drive off a female Northern Flicker.? It appeared somewhat perplexed to see a bird larger than an adult Starling.? Oh, life is so full of unexpected encounters!?
And I wonder what will happen tomorrow?? Will the youngest fledging again hold total control of the suet feeder?? Or will a younger fledging appear and chase today?s fledging off?? Will the female Downey make her fledging feed for it?self?? This is the 2nd day I?ve witnessed this Downey behavior and also the Northern Flicker behavior.? Why go birding when all these bird happenings are just 10 feet from my desk?--Jackie Boss

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Jackie Boss
(360)299-8067 (Home - preferred number)
(360)202-1190 (Cell)
jackieaboss at yahoo.com

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