It’s Raining Starlings!

There’s a school of thought in the nature world that birds and other animals predict impending storms and thus eat as much as they can in case they can’t get out during inclement weather. How they do this without benefit of the Weather Channel remains a mystery to ornithologists.
Here, on the North Coast of America, we’re awaiting, with bated breath, for a storm to whack us. The Weather Channel and the local weather prognosticators have been predicting inches of snow, blustery winds and weather chaos in general for the next couple days.
I took a break from my chores to monitor the bird feeders around mid morning and was astonished at the number of European Starlings covering the ground. I Guessitimated about 100 but was probably wrong. Mixed in with the starlings were American Robins.
The birds were in a feeding frenzy, attacking the seed feeders and, especially, the two suet cakes. I checked the water dish and there was four-bird deep waiting line! The trash truck arrived and the birds scattered. Only then did I see there were several squirrels on the ground also tanking up for the big storm. When the trash guys left, the birds returned, however, there were not as many. And the starlings were joined by a half dozen Cedar Waxwings, a single male Northern Cardinal—I mean he was unaccompanied, not his marital status—a number of Dark-eyed Juncos and most of the other feeder birds. When the female Red-bellied Woodpecker arrived to dine on her favorite suet block, I sensed trouble. Three starlings were squabbling over the suet already. She landed on the top of the pole that holds the suet and just stared the three speckled intruders down. It appeared they were taking measure of her beak and decided it might not be a fair dust-up if they continued. Off they went.
So what does this all mean? A dozen or so species of birds and assorted squirrels chowing down, all more-or-less in harmony; getting ready for the storm. There’s probably some ancient message here that we humans can’t seem to tune into. We seem to do a fair job of handling the disaster after it happens …
I think I’ll go make sure the snow shovel is near the door—and that we have an adequate supply of cookies for the weekend.