The bird in her photo is definitely a European Starling, and Starlings commonly travel in large, noisy flocks, however it is very easy to confuse European Starlings with Grackles because both species exhibit the same noisy flocking habits and aggressive natures. To make identification even more difficult European Starlings & Grackles often flock together and in some instances they even nest in large group settings. Both European Starlings and Common Grackles are problematic to people because they will often exploit small openings the siding, soffits and fascia of our structures to nest in attics or wall cavities. When I was kid I lived on a dairy farm and our old farmhouse had redwood plank siding. One season so many grackles and starlings got into the siding that our entire house was infested with bird lice. To clear the mess we had to strip the siding off the house, clean all the straw, twigs and other nesting materials out of the wall cavities and the entire house had to be fumigated to kill the lice. I have often seen flocks of Starlings and Grackles land on a freshly planted field and the flock would cover an entire acre or more. STARLINKA- I am flattered that you would like my photo for wallpaper. Feel free to use any photo I post for that purpose. The only thing I ask is that people do not use my photos for commercial purposes. I post them free and I would expect others to share them for the same price, In fact, if you or any of the others would like a specific species for wallpaper please feel free to send me an email and i will see if I have something you might like. Thank you,

In our school district..each school has the option of using the robocall. You will usually get a call for elementary age kids around 11 am...if your child was marked absent and you either didn't call ahead or the secretary didn't a chance to get them entered. If I child is absent on a day and they aren't often absent..they will NOT be tracked down. If however a child is absent and it's a "typical" thing some schools secretaries will make a personal call. It's a history type thing to turn into the child court for truancy issues. Yep even in elementary. Now if the child is in middle school or high school and you don't call in, you can expect a robo call in the evening letting you know what periods your child was marked absent. Now if a sub is in..likely you'll get your child was absent periods 1,2, 4 and 6.. because sub sheet absences are entered by the attendance secretary at the end of the day or the next morning. Like I said the only time a personal safety call(live person) is made is if your child has quite a history of absences. And only the "main" number is called. Emergency numbers are only used if their is an emergency on the child's behalf and the home and parents cell numbers are not reaching the parent. I don't think I've ever worked in a school where the principal has time to make "safety" calls.

Hi Sylvia Da Costa - thanks for the update. I'm happy to hear you're toughing it out. Yesterday I felt so bad taking my feeders down at lunch so after work I stopped by my local feed mill and picked up some black striped sunflower seed (shell on) - the shells on the striped are supposedly harder to crack so I bought them hoping the starlings couldn't crack them, but the cardinals could. I also bought an upside down suet feeder which is supposed to help with starlings (even though I read some can and will hang upside down). When I came home for lunch today there wasn't a startling in sight - I was relieved but there were also less birds all together :( I couldn't take not feeding them (like normal) lol so I put out a couple more feeders today, with mix of reg seed and some premium sunflower hearts and peanuts (shell removed) - sure enough two starlings showed up - but I can handle that. I just can't handle 30 starlings and 80 in the tree nearby. I'm hoping with time, and as I continue to feed mostly only shelled seed, the starlings keep away. Once I feel more confident they are gone then I'll sneak out the good stuff for the birds I enjoy seeing. I may buy a caged peanut feeder soon because I hate to stop feeding peanuts too. Here's the one I found that I like so far. I don't know if the starlings beaks can reach in far enough (?) I'm hoping not. Duncraft sells this one for $39.95. I prefer to buy one local if I can find something similar. And for my little downy woodpeckers, I may buy this suet feeder from DrsFosterandSmith. Woodpeckers are one my favs to watch too! The norther flicker is always a delight to see.

Back to the temperature behavior. "The effect of temperature on Wheat streak mosaic virus (WSMV) replication and in planta movement was examined using a virus (WSMV-GFP) tagged with green-fluorescence protein. A rapid increase in virus accumulation was observed with increasing temperatures beginning at 15°C in Tomahawk, but this response to temperature is delayed with virus accumulation increasing beginning at 25°C in Mace. Some wheat plants that were not systemically infected at 10 and 15°C were found to be infected with the virus in regrowth shoots later at 27°C, suggesting that WSMV moves at undetectable levels under suboptimal temperatures, but rapidly begins to replicate and spread in planta under optimal temperatures. These results indicate that temperature played an important role in WSMV replication, movement, and disease development in susceptible and resistant wheat cultivars. " https://www.ars.usda.gov/research/programs-projects/project/?accnNo=424225&fy=2016 The virus WSMV (Wheat Streak Mosaic Virus) is not an emaravirus, but the above study suggests that it may be useful to add a green-fluorescence protein to Rose Rosette Virus and study its temperature behavior. https://www.google.com/?gws_rd=ssl#newwindow=1&q=green-fluorescence+protein+tag+to+virus&spf=1499315033843