Starling in hot water........!!

We had the hardest frost of the winter so far last night, the pond and both of the bird baths were solid with ice as you'd expect.

I thawed a hole in the ice on the pond by simply standing a saucepan of very hot water on the ice until a hole had been thawed through.

Luckily with the bird baths, the actual bath part lifts off the pedestal, so it was just a matter of running warm water over them until the ice was gone.

Gave them both a good scrub, replaced them on their pedestals and filled them both with clean warm water.

Within the hour the starlings had arrived and pretty much devoured a whole fat block in the one sitting.

I'm amazed that, regardless of the temperature outside the birds still take the time to clean themselves.........

This starling was having a great old time...........

Better viewed, even greater old time..........!!

I wonder if they get a sense of fun while they take a bath, as we would if we were splashing about in the sea or in a swimmimg pool..........??

There were some images of geese flying over the himalaya's in Earthflight a week or so ago, it mentioned that some of the geese that migrated across the Himalaya's actually flew right over the mountains as opposed to flying through the valleys that criss cross the mountain range. The birds that chose to fly over the mountains were flying at between 5000 and 6000 feet in altitude and encountered temperatures of minus 40 degrees celcius..............

So a starling having a bath at around freezing point is nothing special after all.........

j.