Drama in the backyard

I don't know what my neighbour on the other side of the fence is feeding the birds but I am seeing a lot of, what I call, less desirable birds.  House sparrows and starlings are aggressive with smaller birds--like my favourite goldfinches--and they also leave large splats of poop down my fence and over my deck.  I come home some days to find the birdbath almost empty and I know there has been a riot in the yard during the afternoon, I hose poop off the deck.

Today this starling, at least I think it is a starling, collided with a goldfinch who had almost reached my niger feeder, he scared the goldfinch off, savagely tore a flower from my basket and ate it while standing on the fence.  When the starling flew off, the goldfinch returned for a dainty snack.  My neighbour is away for the weekend but she has left lots of seed in her feeders for the big bully birds.

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