Sunday 8 February 2015

Murmuration



Hello,
I wanted to tell you about the murmuration of Starlings each evening, this winter, over our village.
We first noticed the murmuration just before Christmas and how the Starlings all flew in from every direction and from goodness how far away.   It's as if the murmuration has grown over the last few weeks and now we are into February, there are thousands of Starlings all flying in, one huge gathering in particular, joining many other smaller flocks.   I took these videos yesterday.   Terrible recordings!   The one above though, is to just give an idea of numbers over our English, Staffordshire village at dusk (5pm).
Eventually the murmuration divides up and the Starlings roost in three sites in back gardens.   This being one of them (video below).   Cars are covered in poop and you will be able to hear the sound of their wings, the chattering they do and the sound of falling poop.  I apologise for the really awful recording and me 'whoa...ing' in the background.
I feel extremely privileged each evening to watch this spectacular site. 
The vids are obiosuly best watched on a large screen, if you fancy viewing. 


Thanks for stopping by. x

13 comments:

Greenorchid said...


Wow... isn't nature just fabulous!! Cx

Yael said...

Wow, what an awesome glorious spectacle. Good night Starlings!
Thank you so much for sharing, I very much enjoyed this post! :-)

Ariadne said...

It does make you wonder why the birds are doing this.AriadnefromGreece!

Elizabeth said...

wow... how great te see.
thank you.

Flaming Nora said...

Amazing? Thanks for sharing. Xx

Chickpea said...

Wow! That is wonderful, you are so lucky to have that on your doorstep. Thank you for sharing.

kjsutcliffe said...

We missed the murmurations this last season - not through lack of trying!But when we have been privileged to watch this spectacle we just realise how lucky we have been to see them :)

lettice leaf said...

The bloomin red arrows ought to watch out... the black arrows are giving them a right royal fly past. I love the few that break away and then swoop in. What a wonderful rich and varied world we live in.

LLX

inmykitchen said...

What a sight, like shoals of fish in the sky. Sadly we have no starlings where I live. Surprisingly I think they are in decline in some parts of the U.K.

Marci said...

What a great video! Fantastic sight! Thank you.

Susan C. said...

Thank you! That was one of the many wonders of our world. Spectacular!!

A Mermaid's Tale said...

Quite, quite extraordinary! And to find it all happening right in front of your window! I love your gasps of amazement....it does really take your breath away. I can believe too that there must be an awful lot of poop! Great that you've captured it on video for us all to see, thanks Viv xxx

Ally said...

their wings sound like ocean waves. I used to have a large tree which sadly had to be taken down and all the starlings used to roost in it, mine and my neighbors garden would be covered in perfectly clean cherry stones, hundreds of them. My neighbor thought it was my son with a pea shooter but it transpired that the starlings were eating the cherries from the ornamental trees in the area, swallowing them whole, digesting the fruit and regurgitating the stones when they came to roost in my tree lol