It is indeed that time of year: one minute you are peacefully working and the next thing you know you are deafened by a literal cacophony of caws, tweet, screeches, and chirps. Yep, that is right – the starlings are passing through. Today for about an hour they filled our trees, just about driving me out of my mind. Then, all of a sudden, they descended en masse to the the ground in our back yard.  Eliza was on the back porch, and I knew she would be about nuts. about that time I heard a loud “WHAM” from the back, and Eliza came tearing through the kitchen while the starlings simultaneously scattered for the trees. From the looks of the feathers scattered all over the back window, it seemed one of the starlings dive bombed the cat only to crash into the window. Serves ‘em right I say. Minutes later one of the neighborhood hawks glided overhead and the plague of feathery black locust were gone just as quickly as they appeared. Good riddance I say.