Sturnus vulgaris

I dreaded doing this bird, because I have learnt that birds which seem quite easy to do are the toughest ones. It isn't the Eagles or the Puffins that give you hard time - it's the Blackbirds and the Tits. But the Starling, I knew that was going to be hardwork because it is really a very colourful bird. Sure, it isn't Parrot colourful, but it hides a multitude of light in its plumage - in fact, in other parts of the world, there are birds which are completely black which are called glossy because that same rainbow sheen, found in puddles of oil or on the surface of busy rivers, is found on these birds. And that iridescence is impossible to capture on a static page because it is a play of magic and movement.

In addition to the ever changing greens and purples and blues, it also has these wonderful reddish feet - and it a perfectly sharp beak - and these every so slightly misplaced eyes. These eyes seem too close together, although I have been told that they are so close together for a reason - to give the bird sniper vision. It is as close shutting one eye to gain the single vision looking through a gun sight, and if you look at the starling and its bodkin of a beak, you could see how this would work. However, draw these too close and the bird looks deformed, too far away and it is a cartoon Starling. So i began this task already accepting defeat.

Of course Starlings are known for two things: imitation and murmurations. I have a bird clock which goes off every hour, making a bird song I don't recognise, even though I have tried many times matching it up with the bird allotted to the hour. However, when this clock first arrived in the house, I would be surprised whenever the songs were played - was there a bird trapped in my bedroom? The Starling plays the same trick in the middle of winter. Or in fact, just anywhere at all. Their ability to imitate anything is legendary, from telephones to buzzing saws, it is the subject of endless radio interviews. However, it is when they imitate other birds that confuses you the most. For instance, I could in the school garden, about a mile from the seashore and I would suddenly hear the whistle of the oystercatcher. Or perhaps the call of the Curlew. In the middle of winter, the screaming Swift. Of course the natural reaction is to sit up and go, what the heck? I am pretty sure that there are gangs of Starlings going - ok, now we do the Greenshank and see what she does. 

Apart from Sparrows, there is no other bird which seems to enjoy the company of each other as much. This is manifest in the conversations they indulge in all day long. Where Sparrows cheep and cluck genteelly, their voices the very essence of a summer's day, Starlings are more like fishwives at the wharf, waiting for their husbands to come home. They whistle, gossip and scold, chitchatting away or calling to neighbors over rooftops. Or perhaps, and this is more accurate, they have this metallic quality to their voices, which makes them sound like several R2 units protesting simultaneously. Who understands that language of birds? If I could, Starlings would probably be the best company. I remember asking a warden once, what birds were making that sound and he told me, the Starling. It was Eddie actually. How do you know Eddie, I asked him? They all sound alike to me. I shall forever be grateful to the RSPB for having taught me so much about the natural world. It is a very particular take of the natural world - the hard empiricist view of it, but I am so much better for it.

I am about to start a new birds group of our own - this one is different from the bird groups which I have known. The ages are very mixed - children, parents and grandparents. They are by background VERY mixed - there are no so called scientists in the group, apart from the people we will be inviting to speak to us. There is a confidence that it is not simply the physical reality which we see, but a spiritual reality which also surrounds us. We are all very excited by this.

It is New Year's Eve. I have spent the last few days running, drawing and watching too much TV. I watched all of Black Mirror last night. That's another blog though. Time to start getting ready for New Year's Eve. We are having steamboat tonight.