Considered pests by many, European starlings won’t likely to top anyone’s favorite birds list beyond the Shakespeare fan who brought them to the United States in 1890.
I like Shakespeare but I’m less enthused by starlings. I dismissively refer to them as “Euro trash,” but I usually hold a beat and then scold myself being unfairly harsh on them.
Today, I happened upon nearly two dozen of them perched high in a tree at the Dyson Tract along the Delaware and Raritan Canal. On first spotting them, I was puzzled. The heads of the birds appeared tan or yellow from my perspective looking upward.
Through my binoculars I got a better view, and the birds’ speckled breasts left no doubt that they were starlings.
Pretty birds? No, but they must look attractive to one another.
I had started my birding at the Mercer Meadows Pole Farm at 8:45, later than usual. Few birds were out in the steady breeze and gusts that were blowing, and I took no photos other than a landscape shot with my iPhone.
I stopped by the Dyson Tract an hour later and had better luck. I spotted a little blue heron that has been staying in the swamp for the past few weeks. A great blue heron was standing in the lake on the other side of the path perpendicular to the canal towpath.
As I walked up the path, I saw a bird land atop a bare tree a good way away. I couldn’t make the bird out through binoculars but took a few “here’s hoping” photos on the chance I might be able to make an ID back home on the computer screen.
Zooming in on the photos, I spotted the chunky beak of what turned out to be a female rose-breasted grosbeak. I’d seen several males during spring migration, but this was the first female I can recall spotting this year.
That sighting reminded me of how rich the Dyson Tract is in bird density. In an out-and-back walk through the site that’s less than one mile, a great variety of birds reveal themselves. It’s one of my favorite spots in Mercer County — even with all the starlings! 🦅
