A blackbird sitting dead still in the middle of the lane I was riding in. It watched me as I went by about 3' away, and didn't budge when a truck went by in the opposite direction. I got off and went back with the idea of at least moving it off the road, but when I reached down for it, it flew away.
I reckon it was either knackered from evading a predator or had been stunned by a collision with a vehicle. Apart from staying still it looked fine, and it flew off sharpish enough.
Later, half-a-dozen starlings in the neighbour's garden. Starlings are very infrequent visitors here - we see a group every four or five years, usually on a brief stop on their way somewhere else. Remembering the teeming thousands we used to get in Norn Iron - and the racket they used to make - it seems funny, now, to be chuffed at seeing a few like this.
