Bird interactions

It's a beautiful summer day here in the upper midwest, as nice as they get. With a high in the mid-80s, it's probably a bit warm for some people, but with lows in the mid-60s, the house stays very comfortable. Things are pretty well spruced up inside and out for all the visitors from near and far. One of the farthest is due to arrive in about 30 min. by train, although a distance train horn can now be heard; north bound or south bound? Can't tell. Rain is skirting our area to the south, and the gardens could use some watering. Containers had to be watered, but some beds need watering for the first time this year. August is always dry. Areas of the lawn that got flooded a few times earlier this summer are still in bad shape, and now the soil is beginning to crack. Lovely. The Phactors are not the tallest of people, so some dangling bald cypress twigs had to be trimmed so as not to mess with tall people's heads. No top hats are expected for this wedding.
Oh, yes, this was to be about birds. It was a very birdy day; lots of activity. While ruby throated hummingbirds are very common out in the countryside, they are more uncommon in our urban setting, however with lots of good butterfly and hummingbird flowers open a lot of both are around. Tiger swallowtails are pretty common, but a giant swallowtail made an appearance. And spicebush butterflies are more common this year probably because we have their food plant. A couple of hummingbirds were operating throughout our gardens. What was most interesting was to watch a hummingbird interact agressively with a house wren. Now of course they do not compete for the same food at all, so TPP really doesn't understand why the hummingbird was so intent on chasing the wren out of the area. Watched the hummer fly up and dance back & forth right in front of the perched wren until the wren bailed out with the hummer on his tail. Strange.

Alien Invasions - Starlings

Starlings are not a favorite bird. They nest in my covered gutters thereby defeating the purpose of having them covered. At times they overwhelm our bird feeders' regular native visitors. And then there is another strange behavior that has yet to be explained to me, but it's truly vexing. Just as their chicks are getting ready to leave the nest, the adults will pluck bits of vegetation. No idea why, but they aren't feeding it to their offspring because they leave the plucked bits behind. They prefer small tender plants sort of out in the open. This happens at just about this time of year, and you've just set out pepper and tomato plants, and have new seedlings appearing in your garden. Nip, nip, pluck, pluck, you HAD new seedlings and recently transplanted plants in your garden. Now you got little green leafless sticks. Pass the birdshot please. What's historically interesting about this is knowing who to blame - Eugene Scheiffelin. In 1890 he released 60 starlings into New York City's Central Park. The next year he released another 40. He had some romantic notion about having all the birds mentioned in Shakespeare's plays introduced to New York City. Of course by 1928 starlings had reached the Mississippi River so fast did their population grow. The story is familiar to biologists who know that many introduced species can have population explosions because nothing checks their growth. Here's the simple rule for safely introducing alien species - DON'T! It gives you something to think about when you replace your pepper plants.