Evening star., 1945-08-23
This and That
By Charles Z. Tracepell.
"VERPLANCK PLACE,

Dear sir:
Perhaps you can tell us something of
the strange antics of 300 starlings-
actual count
For the past two weeks or longer
they swarm all day long, first in a large
tree at the lower edge of the reservoir
at Forty y-fifth and Warren streets NV
Then they fly across the covered
reservoir and take up position at
light post located at the southwest
corner of Forty-fourth and Warren.
They line up on the wires in close
formation in all four directions from
the post. They fill the wires solidly for
several hundred feet.
You might marvel at my statement
about 300 starlings, but it is very simple
to count them when they are lined up
in close formation as they leave about
two inches of space between the birds.
They spend the entire day swarm
ing at first one location and then mov-
ing to the other They must be having
a convention or something. I wonder
when they find time to get anything
to eat.
Formerly the starlings would 20
carefully over every inch of the grass
on the covered reservoir looking for
japanese beetles and grubs. Now that
the Japs have given up, the beetles have
gone, and the birds seem to be cele-
brating.
I'VE enjoy reading your column very
much. We have a feeding station and
get much enjoyment from our teathered
visitors. Your name has become a
by-word in our house. Whenever we
find bird we don't,know much about
some one says Ask This and That
Cordially yours. W. M. T."
Starlings have habit of collecting
in fiocks.
In certain sections of Europe great
bands of them would descend on vine
yards and in few minutes clean out
the crop
Similar destruction to the olive crop
has been reported.
The spruce moth of Bavaria was at
one time attacked by bands of STAR
lings estimated at 10000 birds.
In Europe the bird seems to fit in
better with the crops and other birds
than it does here, perhaps.
The starting is a crowlike sort of
bird, and has the same habit of getting
together, at times almost as If it were
attending convention.
Crows carry this to the extent of
holding trials" according to some OBJ
servers, in which they sentence some
bird to death and then carry out the
sentence.
Starlings do not have any such trials"
but like to gather to look. over the
landscape. As fall comes on, they come
together on houses and along cutters on
houses
In our country the startling is not too
hard on smaller birds. The worst thing
it does is to compete with many other
natural species for nesting sites.
1t was first introduced into the United
States in $780, Since that time it has
spead over the entire country, spending
summer in Canada, and returning this
far South in the winter.
A hardy, sagacious creature, it has
established new migration routes here,
and is entirely at home. Where it
gathers in focks, 1t is somewhat of
nuisance, but when only a few visit
yard it is as interesting as any.
Its insect-eating habits are good, on
the whole. With the English sparrow,
it is one of the few birds which will
eat the Jap beetles.
Experts fear that If bounty is ever
offered for the starting, hundreds of
blackbirds and meadow larks will be
exterminated by mistake.
The startling is highly intelligent,
cautious and able to take care Of itself
at all times. 1t always sends out
scouts, which have some way of COM
municating what they find, whether
Of good or danger, to the main flock.
Its intelligence is seen in its Dip
ping into pools and rescuing baby
sparrowS which have fallen in. It is
one of the few birds which seems to
reason like a man.
Its mass flights are things of beauty
and power which an air-minded age
must admire. We suspect that the
starlings knew and used the principles
OF "radar" long before we did.