Starlings know how to lull me into a false sense of security. The birds completely vanished for almost two weeks so I thought it was safe to toss some peanuts back into all the bird seed mixes. Boy was I wrong. Within the day a cloud of them descended on our yard like a plague of locusts. The photos don’t capture the frenzy because every time I tried to get close to the window, half the dreadful gluttons flew away.
I have noticed a pattern emerging. Whenever a strong weather system arrives—whether it dumps rain or snow—I can usually count on a large flock of starlings to drop in and eat everything in sight. Perhaps they’ve figured out that people are more likely to replenish their feeders before a storm.
Or perhaps they’ve just figured ME out.