My great-great-grandparents moved here from Africa. If you live in the United States, chances are your ancestors moved here from another land just like mine did.

The European Starling, which one sees with great frequency here, was brought to this continent by a Shakespeare enthusiast in 1890. Shakespeare was a human who wrote plays a long, long time ago.  English-speaking humans revere him and apparently Shakespeare mentioned starlings in one of his plays.

European Starlings have flourished here and they now live from sea to shining sea. You have probably seen one yourself: they are about the size of an American Robin, but are a glossy black with a metallic sheen that, depending on the light, looks green or blue or purple to my eye.

The other day, just as the sun was going down, I passed a massive flock of European Starlings settling down for the night in the branches of neighboring oak trees. What a cacophony they made! I rarely hear such a ruckus. They seemed to be having quite the party and they sure did look like they were having fun.

Their camaraderie put me in the mood to go have fun with my own friends and family and so I asked Hector if he wanted to go to my parents’ place for dinner, which is just what we did.