Photo by Snapp3r on Flickr At this time of year we get a tad fed up because the starlings seems to gang up and like a bunch of greedy thugs eat all the bird seed forcing the smaller regular birds away. They are of course only trying to survive in the cold but they do so in a very unhelpful way.
But there is another most amazing aspect of their winter life - as the numbers build, with more and more starlings arriving from overseas to spend the winter here, they tend to gather in huge flocks - almost swarm like - and perform amazing synchronized formations in the sky.
At their peak hundreds of thousands of starlings will cluster up before their night-time roosting and create a constantly changing set of organic shapes in the sky. This is all known by the lovely name of "murmuration". And it is famously great viewing near us on the Somerset Levels, at Shapwich Heath and Ham Wall nature reserves. If you would love to see this then Gorge View Cottage provides the perfect location to stay - something we were reminded of with a recent booking by a guest to do just that!
You can see and learn more here on the RSPB site.
But there is another most amazing aspect of their winter life - as the numbers build, with more and more starlings arriving from overseas to spend the winter here, they tend to gather in huge flocks - almost swarm like - and perform amazing synchronized formations in the sky.
At their peak hundreds of thousands of starlings will cluster up before their night-time roosting and create a constantly changing set of organic shapes in the sky. This is all known by the lovely name of "murmuration". And it is famously great viewing near us on the Somerset Levels, at Shapwich Heath and Ham Wall nature reserves. If you would love to see this then Gorge View Cottage provides the perfect location to stay - something we were reminded of with a recent booking by a guest to do just that!
You can see and learn more here on the RSPB site.
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