Starlings - Yard Bird 22

Sometimes it's okay to break all of your own photographic rules... I really prefer not to take photos through the windows and I try not to include bird feeders and I try to have the camera settings right before I click the shutter....  but sometimes you settle.  It's rare that I have European Starlings in my yard so when I looked out very early this morning and saw a group of 15 or so on the suet feeder and splashing in the bird bath, I grabbed the nearest camera and fired off a burst of shots through the window.  After the first burst, I tried to creep a bit closer to the window, but they must have seen movement because in a flash of wings they were gone.  Settings were all wrong so every image had to be lightened significantly in LR, further diluting the resolution.

I think most people are familiar with these birds.  Although they are native to Europe, they were introduced in the US in 1890 by Eugene Schieffelin in his attempt to introduce every species of bird mentioned in the works of William Shakespeare.  As is often the case when man meddles with nature, the starlings flourished and now number over 200 million in the US.  They are responsible for declines in some of our native cavity nesting species in addition to having had a detrimental effect on agriculture.  All of that said, they are very pretty birds, especially when in their bright winter plumage.  Just wish they'd stayed in Europe...

So these starlings represented the 22nd species of bird I've seen in/from my yard in the first five days of 2017.  I'm hoping to beat my 2016 record of 82 species by year end, but that will take some luck.  Meanwhile, I'll continue to photograph as many as possible.

Thanks for the love on yesterday's cardinal. I also added a short post-script to yesterday's journal because I wanted to record having finally seen two crows engaged in allopreening behavior, something I'd only read about.  

It's very cold today - not much fun to be out for more than 15 minutes or so at a time.  So, I'm taking advantage of some indoors time to do some research on Medicaid  as well as some other items related to my MIL's  future care.  It's all a bit daunting right now, but one step at a time...

As always, thank you so very much for stopping by.  Every comment and star is appreciated.

xo
Debbi