Starling

[Kevin Milkins]

The starlings are enjoying a new cake mix that Mrs M cooked up for them and I noticed today that one of them has a leg ring on.:eek:

Who would have put that on and what for?:confused

[nirofo]

There are many bird ringing schemes throughout the world, in Britain the British Trust for Ornithology is the responsible body for organised ringing. Many birds are close ringed as nestlings so that when they fly the nest they may eventually be trapped by organised ringing groups or individuals using mist nets and other humane trapping apparatus. The reasons for ringing are mainly to trace the distribution, migration and travelling routes the birds take, other reasons are to record the age, weight and sex, all this data is recorded for use in various studies. Many birds are found dead either by natural causes or through illegal poisoning, shooting or trapping. If you find any of these dead birds with a ring on, you should remove it and send it to the British Museum in London, giving as much information as possible into the circumstances and the location of where it was found. The museum will eventually reply to you with all the relevant details of that particular birds known history.

For more details see here. http://www.bto.org/ringing/ringinfo/index.htm

nirofo.

[Kevin Milkins]

Thanks for that info Nirofo, I understand why they would want to track some birds ,but was a bit surprised at seeing a Starling with a ring on.

If he eats much more of Mrs M's cake he may not get airbourne again.:D

[Shabbychic]

Kevin, do you have Mrs M's recipe for the cake mix? I was thinking on trying something new. Tell her I would be very grateful.:)

[Fran]

I have quite a lot of starlings in the garden with rings on and last year noticed a few baby ones also had rings on. I was looking about for a man up a tree going into nests to ring birds!!!

[cazmanian_minx]

Kevin, do you have Mrs M's recipe for the cake mix? I was thinking on trying something new. Tell her I would be very grateful.:)

I'd love to have it as well - we have starlings nesting in our letterbox and the parents are wearing themselves ragged feeding the chicks.

[Kevin Milkins]

Cheapest lard, mixed bird seed, any fruit left in the fruit bowl chopped up,any old bread chopped up, a few cereal some dried fruit.

Microwave the lard and poar into any old throw away container like curry dishes etc and mix ingriedents in.Another container that is usefull for the tubelerbird feeders are toilet roll tube.
Standthem on a plate and spoon mix in.

Place in fridge untill set (for about one day) then remove from container and put into feeder.

[Anji]

Great recipe, Kevin.
I bet that will be the most popular cake on Caithness bird tables for quite a while.

[Shabbychic]

Cheapest lard, mixed bird seed, any fruit left in the fruit bowl chopped up,any old bread chopped up, a few cereal some dried fruit.

Microwave the lard and poar into any old throw away container like curry dishes etc and mix ingriedents in.Another container that is usefull for the tubelerbird feeders are toilet roll tube.
Standthem on a plate and spoon mix in.

Place in fridge untill set (for about one day) then remove from container and put into feeder.


Thanks for that Kevin. I'll get started on it this weekend.:)

[Dorrie]

Excellent - thanks for the recipe. I never used to feed the birds, we didn't really have many around us, but now our trees have grown the birds are appearing and I am feeding them. :)
I willl definately try that.

[cazmanian_minx]

Thanks, will give it a go :)

[Iffy]

thanks Kevin,
I'm also try that out -
canna type anymore cos "the bairn" (cat of 15 years!!!) is lying stretched out "sunbathin" on my right arm !!! lol

[Kevin Milkins]

Hope all your cake turns out well as my typing was all to pot this morning.

I started to type as Mr's M read out the ingriedients and the batery run low on my laptop so it was a rush job. Mrs M also says "it's a bit messy, but worth it".

Good luck KM