Ah! The apple eater has been identified!

[conuly]

And it turns out to be...

starlings

I'm not sure I wouldn't've preferred squirrels, which are at least native. Oh, I guess I don't really begrudge them some apples, but really? Starlings? I was hoping for mockingbirds, which I know we have even through the winter.

**************

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Comments

[greenwoodside]

My mother puts mealworms out for them. They can get through an entire bag's worth in an astonishingly short time.

There's a kind of discrepancy between the beautiful, otherworldly murmurations I've seen at sunset in west Wales, rising and reshaping and swirling like ash flakes, and the raw determined greed of them when they hit a suburban back garden.

[conuly]

Well, flying takes a lot of energy, and so does staying warm when you are fairly small. I have one birdfeeder with food that I don't care if the starlings eat, and another with food that starlings definitely won't eat if they have any other option but that cardinals and blue jays and native sparrows will.

[chanter1944]

Oh! Starlings are lovely little clever mimics, they are! I'm a fan of their metallic twittery burbling. <3

[conuly]

Yes, they certainly are both pretty and clever. They're also highly invasive. (Though I strongly suspect that some of the accusations leveled against them in the US are misdirected. I believe that they and house sparrows may outcompete native bird species in urbanized areas. I do not believe that they're causing nearly as much harm to native birds as humans are, or even as cats and dogs do.)

[jesuswasbatman]

At the same time as Northern European crabs are causing problems in North America, North American blue crabs are causing huge problems in the Mediterranean.

[conuly]

Sheesh!