Starlings

[poliphilo]

The starlings have found the suet blocks. It's like a Hitchcock movie out there.

I'm told people don't like starlings because they hang out in gangs and twitter too much. I think they're beautiful- sleek and streamlined like Concorde, with an iridescent sheen to them if you manage to get close.

The robin sits in the holly bush, a little apart, fluffs itself up and waits for them to bugger off.

Comments

[catvalente.livejournal.com]

I've always thought starlings were beautiful too--but then, I'm a sucker for a bird with a beautiful name. My husband HATES them, being a lifelong camper who has lost pounds and pounds of food to them.

But then, I always thought magpies were magical, having never seen them until I moved to California at age 13. My husband thinks they're a nuisance, having grown up with them.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

We have magpies too. Lots of them. And yes they are magical.

Ailz says there a kerfuffle outside her window the other day and a hawk or kestrel went whooshing by with a magpie in its fist.

Of course you know the rhyme.

"One for sorrow,
two for joy,
three for a girl,
four for a boy,
five for silver,
six for gold
and seven for a secret never to be told."

Whenever I see a single magpie I immediately look round for others to avert the curse.

[catvalente.livejournal.com]

I've NEVER heard that!

Where is it from?

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

It's a piece of old English country lore.

There was a children's TV programme called Magpie (1968-80)which used that verse- set to music- as its theme song. Successive generations of English children grew up singing it.

[catvalente.livejournal.com]

Wow. I don't suppose you have an mp3?

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

This is the best I can do.

http://www.moviegrooves.com/shop/magpie.htm

Music clip #2 is a fragment -but the relevant fragment- of the Magpie theme.

[catvalente.livejournal.com]

That was neat--it was like a Beatles song. :)

[jackiejj.livejournal.com]

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<Whenever I see a single magpie I immediately look round for others to avert the curse.</i>

I do this, too--with crows!

Then, if there is only one, I reassure myself: "That's just silly." But if there are two, I feel passingly joyful!

If there are three, I shrug. Meaningless.

This is the dark side of synchronicity...

[arielstarshadow.livejournal.com]

Methinks the poor robin will be waiting a very, very long time.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

It's a patient bird.

We think it may have set up home in the holly bush. And the starlings are transients- here today, gone tomorrow.

[jackiejj.livejournal.com]

We think it may have set up home in the holly bush.

This sounds so comfortable--like the beginning of a child's story book.