I guess we’ve all seen them at some time or other. Huge Flocks of Starlings weaving around in the sky like the black ink spot swirling in my jar of water. It really is an incredible sight. It’s called a murmuration. Imagine all those birds moving in accordance with its fellows, I wonder how they do it?Starlings flock all year around, but in the winter numbers are boosted with migrants from the north and the flocks can grow enormous, hundreds of thousands even millions of birds. Flocking allows the Starlings to throw caution to the winds. There’s safety in numbers, so they don’t need to worry quite so much about hawks and other predators.
During the winter starlings live in flocks all day long, travelling between feeding sites or just lazing around in their day roosts. They’ll travel up to 20 miles from their roost to feed, and then in late afternoon they form into pre-roost assemblies, growing larger and larger as assemblies converge and join up and make the swirling cloudlike formations that I’m always so excited to see. I could watch them for hours
Back in the eighties when I worked in Birmingham the Starlings would roost in the city centre on the window ledges at Lewis’s department store, thousands on thousands of them, what a racket they made. As dusk fell they would take to the air and swoop off, a huge swirling cloud of coordinated activity.
The largest flock I ever saw was a few years ago driving home from Edinburgh on the M6, it was so vast it filled my windscreen for a few minutes.
One winter back in the last century the Starlings decided to assemble in the trees at the back of our cottage in Wales. Each evening they would gather and then, with a sudden and mighty flapping of wings, fly up to Geronwy’s farm for one last meal in his fields before bedtime.
This picture was taken in my favourite lay-by on the way back from Reading. The same lay-by where I saw the Kites a few days earlier, the one where I stopped to watch the storm clouds roll in across the Chilterns last summer. Summer seems so far off now, I stop there often, there’s always something to see. I wonder what it’ll be next time.
A murmuration of Starlings, a sure sign that winter’s on the way.
Jamie Morden commented on Facebook:
ReplyDeleteYour Ink pic looks rather good...Chaos Theory in action! :-)
Love the ink photo.
ReplyDeleteAlan Spence e-mailed:
ReplyDeleteThe family Sturnidae, such fine dancers.
One of my favourite Genesis songs is 'Back in New York City' and
there is a line in that song that says 'Your such a fine dancer'.
The family Sturnidae never disappoints in the dancing department.
For eight years I have visited the Minsmere reserve in Suffolk and
three years ago was delighted to be party to a truly magnificent display
by thousands of Sturnus Vulgaris. An hour before dusk they rose up of Dunwich Heath
and dazzled us with their dance for over 40 minutes before going back to rest on
the heath. It was breath taking. They played their rattling song as they changed from one formation to another.
It was one of the best birding experiences I have had.
The most disconcerting characteristic of these aerial displays to the onlooker is the tremendous whooshing sounds as the flock
dives and changes direction.
Sturnus Vulgaris can gather in truly enormous flocks, we are talking of up to 1.5 million birds.
In recent years flocks of this size have not been recorded. At one point there was a 80% reduction in
the UK population due to the chemical spraying of crops. The population is now on the increase again.
However back in the 40's and 50's flocks of over 1 million were reported.
Flocks of over a million can still be observed in Denmark.
The species particularly like to roost and nest in Oak wood and in towns. Although they can also nest in low lands such
as reed beds, as they do often in Scandinavia.
The resident population has been estimated at 850.000 nesting pairs.
But this can more that triple in some years by explosive migrations from NE Europe.
There fantastic aerial dances usually occur just before the breeding season in March and often just before they roost.
However it can occur at other times of the year. I have seen a sizable flock dancing in October on the Wirral Peninsular.
If you do witness such aerial displays particularly near coastal areas it is worth checking out if it is another breed of bird.
Some small Waders put on equally as spectacular displays, such as Sanderling and Knot.
The breeding range is enormous and covers without interruption most of mainland Europe and Asia.
The bird is still heavily predated by birds of pray and is often sited as one of the reasons for a decline in
species such as Peregrine and Red Footed Falcon, mainly due to toxins being passed from the predated bird.
Man has also hunted the bird, mainly by trapping and shooting. This is still true to an extent in
some Eastern European Countries and Northern Italy.
I really don't see the point in killing them as they are not particularly good eating, if you compare them with Larks,
they are excellent eating especially in a pie.
It takes up to 40 starlings to make a moderately descent size pie, but you have to ask if it is worth it.
My Granny Rubie hated Starlings, she thought that they were the garden bullies of the bird world and she was right.
Many a time when I was little I would lie with her under a camouflaged canopy and pick them of one by one with our 177 Webley & Scott Air Rifle.
'Ah' happy, happy times. If my Granny managed to bag about 50 of the rascals she would marinate them in
Dark sugar and Stout. They were still very, very tough.
Alan