Watch the Starlings

I look out of my kitchen window every morning to watch the starlings who are now at this time of year in a battle of wits to take over the nest boxes for the coming Spring, when they will once again be raising their young. On this particular morning I looked out of the window and saw a starling hanging by it's foot out of the opening of the nest box, I was quite concerned about this as I thought it had caught it's foot on something. I grabbed the binoculars to get a closer view of what was happening. To my astonishment,  I saw that the starling fluttering about the opening of the nest box was being held by another starling inside the box. I decided that this was a warning to say "I got here first, go away!" I would have to assume that is was the female who was doing the attacking, being very protective of her home.There are two nest boxes next to each other and it would appear that we have quite a few starlings trying to get into the boxes to stake their claim. I will be watching with interest over the next few days in the hope that peace will once again prevail and the birds will accept their loss or gain of a home and settle down.

A little poem I found:

watch the starlings
synchronizing
their collective dance..
each bird deciding for the all
each on the edge of 
chaos and fall..
local decisions on moving 
coupling a mysterious
non-local intuition.. 
all spurring our wonder 
our disbelief

watch the starlings
once more..
locate where you now stand
my edge in my time
absorb the starling's miracle
murmuring our own 

murmuration

Enjoy your day