Hiya,
I've had a nest of European Starlings in my grill since march. Being the softie that I am, I've allowed them to hatch their eggs and have really enjoyed listening to the babies how their voices have changed over the last 3 or so weeks. Well today, I noticed one on the deck and it was rather large and had lost almost all of it's downy feathers (was actually preening him/herself and taking off all the remaining down). He was perfectly at ease hanging out and fluttering around but really wanted to get back into the grill and couldn't figure it out no matter how many times mom showed him. After about 2-3 hrsd of watching this I got this great idea that I could just prop the grill cover, let him climb back in and all would be great. And it was...until his siblings discovered me. I tested the water after mom went out to get food and he was fine being like 6 inches from me so I just lifted the grill cover about 1.5 inches and he happily went back in...but all the rest of the kids decided that they needed to be OUT right then! They all made a run for it, jumped out the grill onto the deck and immediately took flight off my 3rd floor deck. I saw them go up, NOT down so that was a good thing but they all went in different directions.
::sigh:: They all took off and haven't come back and mom's really upset about it. She has been herding them around the yard, kept bringing food to the area and calling them...everything. I'm hoping they are ok and really think that they should be, given their stage of development. I also hope that they decide to come back for shelter and snacks (got a feeder out there for them) so I can at least see them and know they're ok. Mom's making me feel worse than I already did. She seems lost and upset. I am wracked with guilt over this stupid decision. Anyone know what their chances are taking off at this age? Everything I find about starlings says that they're "pests" that were introduced into NY and that they're not protected but that's it. Really I don't care if they're pests or not...they're my babies and the cutest things ever. I'll feel terrible if I really put them at risk but I need to know.
