Signs Of Spring !

A beautiful day today and signs of Spring ,Snowdrops in flower,and one of my favourite birds the Starlings were bringing straws into a nest that they have been using for at least 40years.

These pictures were taken last year on 16/01/2010,they started out at opposite ends of the shed and gradually after much noisy courtship ended up together at the entrance to the nest.I don"t know how long they live, but only one pair nest here so how they decide its time to change tenants is a mystery  to me.They seem to raise two broods of 3-4 young and constantly amaze me with the amount of food they bring in all day every day,regardless of weather.The farm cats sometimes try their luck at catching them as do some magpies but after a lot of screeching are usually driven  of ,the magpies try to  lure the young out to the entrance to catch them and so far have not been sucessful as far as I know.

A very large "murmur" of Starlings have also spent alot of time this Winter feeding on one of the silage fields,they must eat grass because no  insects could have survived the low temperatures ,and constant "grazing of Lapwing,Redwing,Rook,Fieldfare and seagulls etc.