Friday, 13 March 2009

Starlings and wheatear

Most of us enjoy the spectacle of starlings coming into roost at the pier. One colleague says it is now the only reason she comes into Aberystwyth! Yesterday, there was a small flock late afternoon of 12-34 birds feeding on the front "lawn". It's more of an old pasture really - we don't put on any fertilizer or weedkillers - it has built up a thatch and has waxcups and parasols in autumn. The starlings were really like waders probing the turf and indeed they have got dunlin-like bills. I couldn't see what they were eating but it just shows the importance of old pastures rather than the open ryegrass swards that constitute our green deserts.

Saw a gorgeous wheatear down Tanybwlch earlier. Perhaps the one seen by red. Its throat was yellow rather than yellowish-buff.