Feathery Hugs ..........

.......... to say goodbye - both to my short starling series and also to me as I am leaving today for my long-planned 16 night bliptrip to the States.

I was determined to post one last young starling shot of some sort today as you seemed to have enjoyed them all so, last night before I went to bed, I put cheese, suet, banana, sultanas, cooked rice and seed into the feeder trays ..... up at 05.00 (Himself goes to work at 05.30), made sandwiches, cups of tea etc. and waited by the back door ...... and waited ...... and waited. Food still there and few birdies.

Got a couple of slices of bread, ripped those up and threw them on the grass .... another 15 minutes (by this time it's 06.40) and they started to arrive ....... and they arrived in fine fashion - squawking, flapping, squabbling and gobbling up the bread - then into the cherry tree to start eating all the unripe cherries (we haven't had cherries to eat ourselves from this tree for years) and then, thank goodness, onto the feeders - I'm merrily clicking away and the next thing I know the memory card is full (500+ images).

There were a few I could have used but this one was the most appropriate for today I thought.

Beak to Beak ..

Tomorrow's blip will either be from the plane or from my hotel in Baltimore MD and then I'm onward to Illinois on Wednesday morning - I hope to post each day and look forward to you all coming along on the trip with me.

Musical Connection ............

Coincidentally last year's shot was on the cherry tree - grown-up starling feeding a young starling >>>>>>>>>>>>



NIKON D5200 : f/4.5 : 1/640" : 86mm : ISO 1250