What's mildly irritating you today?

[Snakeadelic]

Starlings. Those things are irritating me today. Invasive, aggressive, screechy Sturnus vulgaris, the Eurasian Common Starling. They look exactly like what they are: nasty, greasy little flying trash bags. Around here, they eat garbage any time the dumpster lids are up, then go sift the playground sand for more garbage while crapping all over the playground. They want the fruit in the tree in front of my window, which is some kind of either crabapple or dogwood near as I can tell (Botany isn't a life science field I'm good with), but so do our native robins and cedar waxwings. So I'm chasing ever-increasing numbers out of that tree and off to other ones, hoping this will be one of the years the huge waxwing flock finds the tree and strips it in 2 days .

At least grabbing my camera gives my loony butt a reason to be out in the wet and cold, standing under a leafless tree. And running up and down our stairs is the only exercise I get until I'm back in physical therapy or rockhounding season starts (which is like June around here depending on the elevation--some great sites aren't even accessible until mid-August).