The Extra in the Ordinary (2)

The old limekilns by the harbour at Beadnell in Northumberland are always worth a look if you are passing by.  The other day when I was up that way the sun was catching a wall of stone that was positioned in front of a dark inner chamber. I thought that it might be interesting to hang about to see if anything landed on the wall in the front-of-stage spotlight against the dark curtains.

A woodpigeon seemed to find this idea amusing.

But the real star was the ever-extraordinary, superb starling.

There is such pleasure to be had out of this bog-standard, undervalued bird.  As it moved, the metallic colours produced by the angled sunlight on the feathers flashed from gold to green and purple to bronze.  Magnificent.  Add to this the astonishing behaviour of winter roosting flocks (great video here) and you've got one brilliant bird.  I rest my case.

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