2024/03/15

This is the sound of a captured and terrified starling. It is sound one would make if being carried off by a predator. When other forms of spooking fail, playing this usually works very well, but not always and overuse can lead to it being useless. Starling's perception of sound is very frequency-specific and their mimicry can be very precise, if scratchy. They don't seem to take long to catch on that it's the same sound each time and can't be the same starling in the grasp of a predator repeatedly. I like to keep it short, so they hear less. They usually fly over to inspect, which is an opportunity to be scary again. Grackles and other birds usually around do not have much of any reaction to it, but I try not to use it when crows are near. They probably know it and are weary of me enough as is it is.

This starling had gotten food enough to become hard to spook and therefore making it very difficult to feed natives without risking inviting many more starlings to crash the party, disaster. This was recorded about 15 seconds into the alarm. The starling had flight feathers clipped, was set free and seen several times nearby for the weeks until near autumn molt.

Continuing- this is the same owl, she was just so beautiful I just wanted to show case the close ups separately. She let me walk right up to almost touching her, before silently winging across the yard over to the pine trees, closely followed by the 'Blue Brigade' who perched in another pine & shouted their disapproval.for the next 1/2 hour,until she obviously decided to move back further into the woods,
These Owls have the most beautiful soft looking eyes...sooo unpredator looking!

Likely somebody's pet...eating somebody else's pet (this is "horse country" and a lot of people have chickens, goats, horses and little farms). Another chicken victim nearby https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/9556838

Feral cat predating American Robin (Turdus migratorius). I found a ruffled loose robin feather in the exact vicinity this afternoon, likely from the same incident: http://www.inaturalist.org/observations/180042313