Starling Young - So fearless? What do I do?

Hi - Sorry I'm new here I don't know if I'm posting this at the right place :) 

I've been feeding the birds all year round and have recently had an influx of starlings that since having babies are constantly in the nearby trees (sure my neighbors appreciate that at 5am). This morning I noticed they were feeding off the ground and my dog did her usual bout of morning zoomies and in my shock one of the birds didn't fly away.. she actually bowled one over. It seemed to be okay - I think my dog was more in shock than anything! but I found that really strange, they are always brave and cheeky but they always do fly away if anyone gets too close. it wasn't until later I noticed there were quite a few young just walking around on the ground, some alone and some following their parents. They were just fearless.

I live at home and unfortunately my parents do have a cat. She's not normally a problem because all my feeders are quite high. But with them fearlessly on the ground I just knew it wouldn't take long for her to kill one and to dismay sure enough when i came out a few hours later she'd not only killed one but was batting another one around, I scared her off and luckily that one managed to get away. Then later on one got trapped in the netted trampoline we have for my 5 year old cousin - it had obviously flew in there and didn't know how to get out. 

Is there anything at all I can do to help them? I just feel its a double edged sword, i can't stop feeding them as they've come to rely on it. I've stopped sprinkling mealworms on the ground and only putting food in the feeders to try and stop them being on the ground so much.

I'm a real novice at this if that wasn't already clear so any help would be appreciated, thank you :)   

  • Young starling's etc are not bothered  with people. I had 3 starling's 1 young blackbird & sparrow all young & they didn't notice how close I was to them.  I was by the shed watching them. Adult birds will fly off

  • Thank you for the replies guys.

    So do you think that I should slow the feeding down now that its nice weather and stop encouraging it? I just read a lot that its encouraged to feed birds all year round. Like I said, I'm a real novice - I just love feeding them and watching them, I find it really therapeutic. But I don't want to encourage that sort of thing. and re: the cat, yes I agree - I do try as much as I can to watch her as much as I can, if it were me I wouldn't own one I'd choose the birds but unfortunately that's not up to me right now.