My Yard was Invaded by Europeans

European Starlings that is.......heard a racket , took a few shots...here is one of them

That's an invasion I would welcome in my backyard. Great capture Gary.

Yikes, they are noisy, aren't they? I have them in my yard too, but I've never taken pics of them to spite them They don't seem to care...

Great shot, Gary

Nice capture

Thanks Reyno and Eric for looking and commenting

I will take a Hummingbird any day Bea (and just about any other species) over the lowly starling however they do sometimes surprise me. They are very social and do like to bathe. They are pretty smart when it comes to getting food and the sound of a large flock in the trees when a Merlin flys over is quite insane. They can also be quite beautiful in the right light when the plumage is just right. Here is a shot from several weeks ago when there was only a couple in the area ( the large group has moved on as well)...looks pretty good when all dressed up

I had them too, there were hundreds here !!
Not very nice light though o most of my shots turned out bad, YOURS on the other hand are great, well done!!

"SpecK....tacular"....

Hey cool shot. Looks like a community bath. The shot of that one Starling at the bath looks almost 3D like.

Looks like my next door neighbours have arrived to your home Gary, they are very noisy and always causing a racket.

Seriously though, an excellent shot of the Starlings and I love the water splashing up in the bath, makes it a very good action shot and you can almost hear the noise they are making.
These birds are noisy and hated by a lot of people but you can't knock the beautiful colours and markings on these birds, as your second shot shows, nice ones, well done.

Great looking shots

Gary,
it seems to me that your first photo wasnt about "here is a sharp bird" - up-close & personal with the bird, yet you lost on a great opportunity of creating a very nice composition if you had pulled back the zoom a bit and let the whole bird-bath get in to the frame with more of its base and more of the bg.
ziggi

Nice shots Gary, the bird bath is a nice captures with all the water splashing around and the large amount of birds present. The second is also well done. The detail, focus and pose make for a great shot. Nice work!

Gary Fairhead wrote in post #2009985
I will take a Hummingbird any day Bea (and just about any other species) over the lowly starling however they do sometimes surprise me. They are very social and do like to bathe. They are pretty smart when it comes to getting food and the sound of a large flock in the trees when a Merlin flys over is quite insane. They can also be quite beautiful in the right light when the plumage is just right. Here is a shot from several weeks ago when there was only a couple in the area ( the large group has moved on as well)...looks pretty good when all dressed up

They do look good in your pics, this is a great shot

Wow, what a gang of starlings! Nice shot of the splash.
They are really LOUD!

Excellent shots as always Gary.