Umbra by Kishore Murthy

My wife and I decided to add some color and nature to our spacious balcony. We got ourselves two Petunia plants, one pink and the other purple. We also got a Cilantro (Coriander) and Basil plant. At that time we had even got a bird feeder which seem to attract mostly the sparrows and created a big mess with the bird feed flying everywhere, including the downstairs neighbor’s balcony. So, we ended up removing the feeder less than a day after setting it up.

The Petunia blossomed and the Basil and Cilantro (Coriander) were lush. I was extremely happy with the Basil and Cilantro especially with the prices today. The only other plant I wanted was the Curry-Leaf plant and I would be set for some proper Desi cooking.

We see a lot of birds on our balcony and the trees facing it. Black Birds, Doves, Sparrows, Red Finch, Swallows, Red Cardinals and Starlings. The Starlings, Doves and Sparrows seem to predominate while the Red Finch and the Red Cardinal make occasional visits.

Recently the Starlings that have a nest in the roofing of the neighboring balcony started to misbehave. I kept seeing them trying to dig in the pot with the Pink Petunia plant and also rip off leaves and flowers to take away for their nest. It looks like they damaged the roots of the Petunia and it is now withering away. This was not all for they started doing the same to the other Petunia plant and even the Basil and Cilantro.

The other day I was sitting at the computer which is right next to the balcony door and saw Basil leaves fly by. I went out only to find a completely trimmed Basil plant… not one leaf left on it. I salvaged whatever I could find on the floor of the balcony and looked up to see the bird. He was sitting on the roof with his wings out a little and head up in the air chattering away. ##$%$%$.

I read up on google about Starlings and found out about their interesting and annoying qualities. Apparently they see color through one eye and movement through the other and they crap everywhere which is clearly evident if you look at the state of our car in the parking lot below.

A must see quality of the Starling is their flight pattern… totally fascinating. I am yet to see such flight patterns out here. Seeing something like this could placate my anger at them.

Here is a YouTube video that captures one such amazing flight pattern.

Visit this Multimedia presentation on New York Times to know more about this very interesting behavior. And here is another link that details the spread of the European Starling in North America.