Sternus vulgaris

Starling

Starlings

I really like Starlings.  

They are unbelievably colourful – in the right light -reflecting all the colours of the rainbow like oil does; 

they are cheerful – always singing – any bird's song will do and it doesn't even have to be birdsong; 

gregarious – form the small flocks in your garden to the millions in a murmuration.  

Late Pruning

Acrobatic female Bullfinch

We are always late with pruning our ancient Buddleia. We do promise ourselves that we will do it before Christmas so that the buds can develop early. Last year, though we had an excuse to leave it later – in late winter/early spring we cut it back drastically and removed lots of dead wood and overlapping branches. So we complacently ignored our promise to prune in early winter and left it with all the new shoots and dead flower heads.