The starlings have come

When the field corn starts to sweeten and the insect population starts to strengthen the Starlings come. They line the overhead telegraph wires like fat black pegs on a clothesline. They fly into the fields by the thousand feeding on the pests feeding on the corn and swoop back out in cascading formations.  They fill the trees like a million fat flashing petals and chatter to each other their songless clatter reaching deafening proportions. And when you step out the door every sound stops, like turning off an efficient pouring tap with the snap of your fingers. Not one peep will be heard as they all swivel their eyes to you, holding their collective breaths then with the gush  of a million clapping wings they will explode from the trees and fly like  a wheeling school of flashing dark smoke straight to another tree. To be watched by a thousand narrowed eyes is an interesting thought.

I like the starlings, I know I shouldn’t but I do.  I read that the  Common Starling was introduced in the 1800’s into Grand Central Park in New York in a strange effort to introduce every bird mentioned in Shakespeare into their park. The Starlings have thrived and spread.  They are a pest in the cities because of their noise and droppings but out here they eat their weight in insects every day in our unbalanced  ecosystemless fields.

Where  some insects develop out of proportion because of their resistance to the sprays and GM modifications so the Starlings have followed suit. I am fairly sure this theory of mine is completely unscientific but this is how it seems to me. The birds follow the insects and help keep them in control. But they are noisy and poopy and their sheer numbers and extraordinary ability to adapt enables them to compete with the native birds for food and nests (though many native birds actually join starling flocks .. safety in numbers and all that) but It is an odd unnatural balance on both sides. I like the starlings and every year I stalk them with my camera as they rest on the telephone wires in drooping lines numbering thousands, strung out along the road off into the distance. But they are too fast for me.

Yesterday An ambassador was sent forth from the Land of  Joyful Filthy Pigdom.  They chose the cutest one with the sticky uppy ears to approach me.

Miss c, he said.

Yes, piggie.

Can you open the gate again, we want to go out and play.

No, I said, you were naughty last night. You went under the fence and behaved badly in the next bay.

Do you mean the sheep, he said. I told them not to do it.

Rolling in the mud then cuddling up with a nice white sheep is naughty, Little piggie. How am I to get her clean.

How did you know, the pointy eared  ambasssador said.

Because Tilly has the imprint of a pig on her side. I can even see your little muddy legs on her wool. I told him, attempting to look stern.  A whole little piggie mark. Like a stamp.

We thought she might like it, said the ambassador. Kind of like a decoration.  And she was so warm. She didn’t even get up.

I sighed. How are you getting out though, I said. I made a long low electric fence, it was  hours of work.

Oh that’s easy, he said. It is a bit high by the pole. Oh, bugger. I should not have told you that.  He paused and looked back at the others, they waved him on. How about an apple then. Can we have some apples?

Well, Yes, you can have an apple.

Can we go out and pick  them, he looked hopelessly hopeful.

No, you can’t go out into the orchard, what would happen if you got lost in the corn. You can have apples but you have to stay in at night from now on. No more break outs.

Ok, he said, and ran back on his short fat legs to tell the others that I said that the first one to break out gets an apple.

It rained yesterday. Just poured.

Beautiful rain. Of course it was soon discovered that the trailer housing the chickens leaks like the proverbial sieve. So I had to create corrugated iron teepees inside the trailer to keep the chicks dry.

Our John could not work in the torrential downpours so he took an old mower apart and attached the wheels to The Ark. Thank you Michael for such a grand idea. The wheels even raise and lower. (Though carefully as the Ark is heavy) So I can lift them up when I pull it (which I can do by hand now) and lower it when I am done.

Excellent, now all we need is the chicks to grow a little bigger, poke through some adjustable roosts that will not trip them when it is on the move and cover it with the tarpaulin. All jobs I can do myself.

An inch of rain. Lovely.

Good  morning. This morning as you can imagine is dense with a heavy fog borrowed from  California.  All that warm wet ground. The grass will be growing though, we have had a splendid season of forage in the fields.

Have a lovely day.

your friend on the farmy, celi