Dances with starlings

Starlings (Sturnus vulgaris)??? What’s so special about them? They are very noisy, gregarious, bossy and ugly. They looked drab and dumpy. But look closely. In summer, the drabness of their dark plumage melts away to reveal an iridescent glow of green-violet sheen. In winter, they developed a completely different look as the plumage becomes spangled with white spots. And, yes, we love them to bits.

In spring, they introduced their grey-brown juveniles to us. In a flash, the bird-feeder was emptied. They fight and shriek at each other, squabbling constantly. In the afternoon, the adults will be lining up on the roof or electric wires chattering and bitching away.

Their ability to mimic human speech earned them their cameo role in Shakespeare's Henry IV :-

The king forbade my tongue to speak of Mortimer. But I will find him when he is asleep, and in his ear I'll holler 'Mortimer!' Nay I'll have a starling shall be taught to speak nothing but Mortimer, and give it to him to keep his anger still in motion.

And in autumn and winter, they become the A-list of the feathered world. It was the time of year when these birds come together to produce one of nature's most spectacular sights and sounds when they began roosting, a process known as murmuration.

Babe witnessed it first last Wednesday and I couldn’t wait to see it. We were in Brandon  Marsh on both Saturday and Sunday evenings. On a cold and wet Saturday, we stood shivering by the reed-beds waiting for the show to begin. An ideal "starling dancing" evening ...... very cold, very bright and very still!

Then as the blue sky gradually deepened from yellow to orange and finally angry red,   they began arriving in small flocks and ribbons. They formed a tight sphere-like formation in flight, frequently expanding and contracting and changing shape. They twist and turn against the fading light, creating a pageant of ephemeral, ever-changing patterns like smoke on a breeze.

In this dazzling aerial display, over 500 starlings wheel and dive across the setting sun, creating elaborate patterns high. What a pity there wasn’t any birds of prey around to spook them into performing their amazing high-in-the-sky rituals.

Hmm that reminds me of a scene where Hannibal Lecter made a pun towards one of the main characters of the novel and film The Silence of the Lambs, Clarice Starling.  "You fly back to school, now, little Starling... Fly, fly, fly..." Shivers…..

There were times when  the cloud of birds flew over our heads.  It was an amazing sight when you see 500 birds moving around as one above you. Swooping and swirling across the now dimly lit sky, they could be mistaken for an approaching storm cloud. Back and forth, left and right, before suddenly, when it is almost too dark to see, they tumbled to the reed beds and there was emptiness and silence. You then realised that you’d witnessed one of natures most spectacular show

The starlings had put on the show for about 45 minutes before settling in the reed beds.  The chatterings  attracted other late strays to join them providing extra warmth on frosty nights. I wish I could see them huddled together, whispering in the darkness, catching up with things. Bonn nuit, my feathered friends.

On Sunday evening, we were back again. This time in the warmth of Carlton Hide. Mark, Katie and Erica plus a few others were there too. Just before dusk, flocks have been swelling in numbers and the amazing flight patterns were beginning to be seen. They were dancing and swooping across the late evening sky. Appreciative oohings and aahings from the spectators.

Just as the sun was setting, they suddenly dived down out of sight into the reed beds to settle for the night. That was quick. I think the aerial display only lasted for 20 minutes. Hey…I felt cheated!!! This flock was much bigger than what we’d seen yesterday. Couldn’t wait for next weekend.

The sight of tens of thousands of starlings pirouetting and wheeling together in an ever-changing cloud of rushing wings is one of the UK's great spectacles. We were very lucky and privileged to have seen various spectacular displays at Gretna Green and Aberystwyth.

But despite the large numbers seen in winter, the UK starling population is in decline, with numbers plummeting by two thirds since the 1970s. The bird is now red listed as a Species of Conservation Concern. Do see them before they disappear.

Apart from the starlings, we also saw Treecreeper, Snipes, Goldeneyes, Long Tailed Tits, Lapwings, Dunnock, Mute Swans, Teals, Tufted ducks, Heron, Cormorants, Coots, Moorhen, Mallards, Shovelers, Robins,  Magpies, Great Tits, Blue Tits, Wood Pigeons, Chaffinches, Common Gulls, Blackbirds, heard a Green woodpecker and scared off a pheasant.  There was always something to point the camera at. Fairy bonnets were popping up and this site will be covered with them.

On Saturday, we also checked out Coombe Abbey in the early afternoon. We left the casa a bit early before 28k football fans descend on the Ricoh Arena. With the Sky Blues biggest home league gate for 30 years and a marching band to stroke up the atmosphere, they still lost 3:2 to Leeds. C’mmon boys!!!

It was a lovely, bright day at Coombe Abbey. I wanted to take a photograph of a moat at the hotel when Babe alerted me to a sign that I need permission :-(. There were hundreds of photographs on Flickr. How did they get it??? Never mind. Lots of other things to photograph anyway. Look at this stunning view…

I brought a loaf of bread to feed the ducks but changed my mind. Hundreds of people were already feeding them so I spent the time behind the camera. I just love this pair. They were always together. Look at the gorgeous colours of the Black East Indies duck.

We walked straight to the hide and had another  lovely surprise. A very familiar whistling “‘whee-oo’” caught my attention. In the middle of the lake, there were about a dozen Widgeons paddling lazily. It was so surreal. And they kept on calling to each other. Just wonderful.

At the hide, there wasn’t much activity. They have scattered a few seeds but not much in the holes of the tree-trunks. A pair of Marsh/coal tit kept us on our toes.. A wren and a Dunnock came out to say hello. The hide was a bit noisy too so I guess that was why the birds stayed away.

It had been a wonderful week dancing with the starlings. And I’m hoping to have another waltz with them next week. In the meantime let’s read a poem by Yeats "The Stare's Nest by My Window". It was about a starling's nest. In the notes to this poem, Yeats explains that "In the west of Ireland, we call a starling a stare, and during the civil war, one built a nest in a hole in the masonry by my bedroom window." How I wish one ,too, will build a nest by my window.

The bees build in the crevices

Of loosening masonry, and there

The mother birds bring grubs and flies.

My wall is loosening; honey-bees,

Come build in the empty house of the state.

We are closed in, and the key is turned

On our uncertainty; somewhere

A man is killed, or a house burned,

Yet no cleat fact to be discerned:

Come build in he empty house of the stare.

A barricade of stone or of wood;

Some fourteen days of civil war;

Last night they trundled down the road

That dead young soldier in his blood:

Come build in the empty house of the stare.

We had fed the heart on fantasies,

The heart's grown brutal from the fare;

More substance in our enmities

Than in our love; O honey-bees,

Come build in the empty house of the stare.