Birding with Flowers: Murmurating Starlings

Monday 19 November 2018

Murmurating Starlings

Apparently, the nearest Starling murmuration has been featured on at least one local TV news bulletin. The visibility was excellent on both Saturday and Sunday afternoons, so it did look as though photo opportunities would be rather promising. When we arrived at 3.30 on Saturday the large green Main Hide was already filled to capacity. So, we walked to the newish hide on a bank which looked directly towards the Humber Bridge. The Starling activity began at around 3.45. It was quite distant from our viewpoint, and the behaviour wasn't as good as Alkborough a few years ago, but there were a few spectacular pulsations and strange shapes before the display petered out around 4.15.

Starling Murmuration

First appearance

Larger Flock

Changing Shape

Starting to Smile

Bunching up

Elongation

Mushroom Cap

Off Again

Mexican Wave

Coalescing

Not a Perfect Circle

Turing into a Space-age Chair

Flying Carpet

2 Separate Groups

Flowing into the Reedbed

Flailing Fish

New BBC 2 Logo

Black & Decker Upside Down

Whale

Along the bridge

More defined

Hippo Facing Left

2 Smoke Rings

Different Shapes

Final Fling

The timings were almost the same on Sunday. However, we arrived 45 mins earlier, so were able to obtain a good seat in the hide. On this occasion the main flock landed to our left, but this time most arrivals went straight into the reedbed with only minimal display. Another observer thought that the best displays occurred during windy afternoons, so we probably need to put that theory to the test. Towards the end of the display some Starlings went into a new part of the reedbed to our right. This enabled me to obtain some shots against the pink sky and the Humber Bridge.

The Humber Bridge

Speech Bubble

Sole of a Shoe

Rhombus v. Circle

Individuals Showing Well

Pink Around the Bridge

Spinning Top

Goldfish heading right

Filling the Sky

Above the Bridge

Ditto

ditto

Heading Down

Covering the Wires

Final Pulse

The flocks this year haven't so far equalled the wonderful shapes formed over Alkborough a few years ago, you may see those here.
Last year's performances at Brough Airfield may be seen here

1 comment:

Unknown said...: Wow looks amazing where abouts is this; 28 December 2018 at 07:20

Spring Course Details

Bookings for the 10-week Spring term have started. At the time of writing there are most vacancies on Tuesday & Friday mornings with a couple of spaces on all other sessions. If you are interested in another session, please ask. For at least 2 hours a week encounter the natural world as a completely new sensual experience. You'll be amazed what you'll find just by listening, and not only by looking! In the Spring we'll be paying special attention to finding and identifying birds by their songs and calls. Summer visitors we are hoping to track down include: Turtle Doves, Redstarts, Cuckoos, Yellow Wagtails and Spotted Flycatchers. We will be visiting venues in East Yorkshire with a couple of ventures into North Lincolnshire and North Yorkshire. So, if you are interested in learning more about your local wildlife in beautiful and secluded venues for less than £12 a week, contact me for more details! We visit a different local hotspot each week and identify all the birds and as much other wildlife as we can. This also includes mammals, and fungi with butterflies, and dragonflies in the warmer months. The course runs twice daily Tuesday to Friday. Please note it is not appropriate to bring your dogs with you. If you are interested in more details of the course, or wish to be placed on a waiting list, please leave a comment next to one of my posts or email me on mflowers81@live.co.uk

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Birding with Flowers

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1.1. Birding with Flowers organises birdwatching and wildlife walks and events to enable participants to learn bird identification, to gain knowledge of habitats and wildlife in general to enhance their enjoyment and appreciation of the countryside. These terms and conditions must be agreed by anyone joining a 10-week birding course or a special one-off event.

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