Anti Gravity: Call of the Reviled; June 2008; Scientific American Magazine; by Steve Mirsky; 1 Page(s)

Whistle. Pop. Whirrrr. Zzzt. Repeat. Many, many, many times.

That¿s the song, if you want to call it that, of the European starling. Two of these relatively drab, chunky little birds are now my next-door neighbors¿the pair moved into a hole in the maple tree in front of my house. Whistle. Pop. Whirrrr. Zzzt. Repeat. Incessantly. They fly into the hole. They fly out of the hole. They dig away at the tree¿s innards and fling the detritus onto the sidewalk below with their little yellow beaks. I might be grateful if I could count on the birds to toss sawdust onto freshly fallen snow so that pedestrians got a firmer footing. But it¿s already spring; the birds are just digging a deeper hole for themselves.