The starlings, that is.The past several days on my drive in, I had been noticing more and more birds congregating in and around the pecan groves I pass. This morning, I started seeing them well ahead of where I've been seeing them, then realized that it was like a continuous highway in the sky. They were undulating in and around the trees like a long black ribbon. I wish I could have gotten a better shot, but this was the best I could do and still stay on the road.
I got to wondering exactly what it was I was seeing. I know that every year at a particular time we seem to see large numbers of starlings traveling together. That led me to google "starling migration". Interestingly enough, I can't really find any information specifically about what prompts the migration, where they are going or where they are coming from. I'm going to keep looking though.
However, I did learn a few very interesting (to me at least) facts about these birds. European Starlings are not native to the United States. In 1890 and 1891, 60 to 100 were released in New York's Central Park as part of a misguided effort to bring every bird mentioned in the works of Shakespeare into the US. They now number over 200 MILLION and are considered a pest by many. A migrating flock can number 100,000 birds. They roost communally in flocks that may contain as many as a million birds.
Get this - both the male and female starling CAN MIMIC HUMAN SPEECH and some people keep them as pets. Who knew?? One website I found is specifically for people who have them. They are actually quite beautiful birds.
Anyhoo, if you have any interest, here's a link to some more info on starlings: http://www.sialis.org/starlingbio.htm
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