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September has arrived, so you all know what that means: the beginnings of huge bird flocks in autumn and winter!
Just as humans spend more time congregating in pubs in autumn and winter, starlings also gather together in large numbers at these times. Every evening as the sun sets, small groups of a dozen or so individual birds follow aerial roadways through the countryside to arrive at their communal roost. These small groups quickly converge into a larger and larger flock that eventually numbers into the tens of thousands. The birds come together in search of safety and warmth, to observe each other to determine who has discovered a food bonanza that they might be able to exploit the next day, and they also are searching for next year’s mate. Part of this process involves a spectacular aerial ballet as the birds prepare to settle into their roost for the long, cold night.
This video, filmed at Otmoor, like so many others that capture murmurations of starlings, brings a tear to my eye. So of course, in honour of caturday, and since the huge lost flocks of passenger pigeons are still foremost in my mind, I had to share this lovely and informative video with you.
This sequence was filmed by wildlife cameraman and travel journalist, Dylan Winter, who is currently sailing around the UK in an 18 foot boat. You can follow his journey and see more of his work on his blog, Keep Turning Left.
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I’ve written about starling murmurations before. For example, in this piece, I explore how they can fly at speed so close together without crashing into each other.
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When she’s not out birding, GrrlScientist can also be found here: Maniraptora. She’s very active on twitter @GrrlScientist and sometimes lurks on social media: facebook, G+, LinkedIn, and Pinterest.
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